


Revealed (And Switch)

by TheMiraculousOkapi



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adorkable Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Adrien Agreste Knows, Chat Noir/Ladybug Fluff, Comedy, F/M, Ladybug Miraculous, Ladybug Reveal, Miraculous Ladybug Love Square, POV Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, POV Alternating, POV Third Person, Reveal, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2020-11-08 02:29:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 33,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20827907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMiraculousOkapi/pseuds/TheMiraculousOkapi
Summary: This story takes place after Glacier in Season 2.When Miss Bustier assigns the class to write poems, Adrien sets his sights on trying one more time to romance Ladybug. But when he strikes out again, he questions the superheroin about the boy she likes. The next day, Adrien listens as Marinette reads her poem to the class, using the same words and phrases as Ladybug. Which could only mean one thing?Rewind back to the previous day when Miss Bustier assigns the class to write poems. Marinette, with the help of Tikki, composes the perfect poem about Adrien. That night, Cat Noir bears his heart to Ladybug. She turns him down, gently. The next day, Adrien reads his poem to the class, using the same words and phrases as Chat Noir. Which could only mean one thing?Reveal (And Switch) is an Identity Reveal fanfic that tells two different stories that branches off, creating two different universes. The two different stories will be told in alternating chapters (Ex: Chapter 1: Adrien, Chapter 2: Marinette, Chapter 3: Adrien, etc.)





	1. Adrien Part 1

“Adri-kins!”  


Familiar with their routine, Adrien caught Chloe in a hug that nearly bowled him over.  


“Please stop calling me that. We’re not five anymore,” he said with good humor. He saw Nino snickering nearby.  


The nickname didn’t bother him, at least from Chloe. Lately, Nino had been using the cutesy name when they played video games together whenever he trash-talked. Since then, the nickname felt embarrassing.  


“Okay, Adrien,” Chloe said, which meant she was in a good mood or wasn’t listening. “Check out my twitter account. This selfie I took this morning, it’s already gotten ten-thousand hits. Isn’t that fabulous?” She showed him ten more just like it.  


“That’s great, Chloe,” Adrien said, trying to support his friend’s interest even if it wasn’t important to him. “Can you show me later? I have to find Marinette.”  


Chloe pouted. “What do you want with_ her_?”  


Adrien frowned at Chloe’s tone. Even though the blonde girl was changing, becoming softer, she was still quick to react in a harsh way. But instead of chiding her, he responded with gentleness and kindness. He knew she didn’t get those things often at home.  


“She and I are science partners. I need to go over some last minute changes to our paper,” Adrien explained, holding up the homework.  


Chloe harrumphed and pointed. “She’s already in the classroom.”  


As Adrien ascended the stairs to the second level, Chloe joined him, hugging his arm and walking so close, they almost tripped. He had been asked before if he thought Chloe too clingy, but Adrien liked the contact and affection. They had been childhood friends, so it felt familiar, and it was rare for someone to show physically that they cared about him.  


Just as Chloe said, Marinette sat at her table, sketching in a book. Alya and Nino sat next to her, looking at something on the former’s phone, most likely regarding the Ladyblog. Man, that girl loved Ladybug almost as much as he did.  


As he approached, he felt Chloe stiffen. Knowing the two girls didn’t get along, Adrien wondered if he should wait. Before he could change his mind, the half-Chinese girl spotted him and smiled.  


“D-did you like the thesis I made with the changes?” she stuttered.  


Chloe laughed.  


“I mean, did you like the changes I made?” Marinette said slower, her cheeks turning pink.  


Hoping to diffuse the situation, he ignored Chloe and addressed the question. “Yeah, I liked your opening sentence. I think it will catch the teacher’s attention much better. However, here and here I liked what we had before. Oh, and we missed a comma here.”  


As they went over each paragraph, Marinette’s stammer worsened, each time causing Chloe to snicker or snort. Adrien wished Chloe would stop or go find Sabrina. He would have reproached her, but he had learned that taking anyone’s side but Chloe’s would put her in a darker mood. He didn’t want to fight another akumatized Chloe.  


Someone else, however, did say something.  


“Geez, lay off,” Alya stepped in. “Can’t you see they’re working? They spent a ton of time on that paper.”  


Chloe’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, a lot of time? Adrien, what do you think of Marinette?”  


Adrien didn’t think it was an appropriate time to ask that question, but he decided to answer with the hope of diffusing the situation. “Marinette’s a smart girl. She’s worked very hard on this paper, and I’m glad we are partners. I like working with her.”  


Marinette beamed.  


Chloe smiled, but it didn’t look kind. “Yeah, but what do you think of her? Like, is she your friend?”  


“Of course, we’re friends. No doubt.”  


Chloe’s smile deepened. “Really good friends?”  


“Yes.”  


“So, you think of her as _just_ a friend?”  


Adrien wondered why Chloe kept rephrasing the same question over and over. “Yes, we’re friends. And I hope that we’ll continue to be friends for a long time.”  


Chloe looked satisfied, patting Adrien’s shoulder. “I’m glad to hear it. It’s so nice that you two are_ friends_,” she said. She then left, calling for Sabrina.  


Adrien shook his head and turned back to the homework. “Okay, where were we…?What do you think about switching these two sentences? I think we could…Marinette, are you okay?”  


The young woman was biting her lip, looking away as if something was wrong. He knew Chloe could go too far, but he didn’t think she said anything bad.  


He touched her hand. “Please don’t let Chloe get to you. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything earlier. It’s just…she’s my friend, too, and sometimes I don’t know what to say.”  


“I-I understand,” Marinette said quietly. “I-I hope you didn’t get the imprinted—I mean, important—I mean—“  


Adrien raised a hand, stopping her. “Maybe now that Chloe knows that I’m friends with both of you, she’ll be nicer.”  


For some reason, his optimism didn’t seem to raise Marinette’s spirits.  


They worked on the paper until the bell rang and Miss Bustier started the lesson.  


“Today, we’re starting our unit on poetry,” the teacher began. “We’ll learn about rhythm, rhyme and theme, and you’ll start writing your own poems. By the end of the term, I expect you to write between twenty and thirty poems. At the beginning of each class, I will call on a few of you to read a poem out loud beginning tomorrow, so I suggest you have one or two ready in the morning.”  


Adrien pulled out his notebook, ready to learn. He liked writing poems. He wasn’t so good with stories or essays, but he could do poetry.  


“Today’s theme that we’ll be looking at is ‘Love’.” Miss Bustier paused, allowing a few students to groan. “I know, I know. When I was your age, the L-word wasn’t something I wanted to talk about in public, but it’s an important part of poetry. We’ll begin by reading some of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Please note the structure…”  


Adrien was already composing, thinking of a certain girl, red with black dots dancing through his head.

***

At the end of the day, Adrien went immediately to his room, barely touching the meal Natalie had brought him. He gave the excuse that he had a lot of homework to finish and wanted to go to bed early since he was tired. His father’s assistant took no notice of this reason, just bid him a goodnight.  


One good thing about being Adrien Agreste, he had enough alone time that nobody noticed if he left home.  


He raced through his homework so he could spend extra time on his poems, looking up rhymes and using mental images of Ladybug as inspiration. Plagg, of course, was no help. He spent a good part of the afternoon mocking Adrien and snacking on smelly foods.  


As day transformed into night, Adrien donned his darker persona. Once in leather, bell and belt, he opened the window and headed into the darkness. Leaping and climbing the rooftops of Paris in familiar tempo, his mind played around with the poems he had created. All the talk of love and passion in class inspired him. To coin a phrase from the movies, he felt he was both a lover and fighter, but tonight he hoped to be only one of those things.  


Hopping through a window in the Bourgeois hotel, Cat Noir was met with a thunder of applause. He grinned and waved, feeling a thrill at having so many people recognize him for his work and not because he was handsome and wore the right clothes.  


He was there to support a charity that his father organized and attended each year, where all the proceeds went to medical research to fight cancer. Gabriel Agrete’s mother—Adrien’s grandmother—had died of it over a decade ago. Many celebrities of Paris had volunteered to attend the dinner where the richer residents of Paris spent a few hundred dollars a plate to sit at a table with the famous, two of which were Ladybug and Chat Noir.  


Searching the crowd, Cat Noir immediately spotted the bright red of Ladybug’s suit, conversing with an elderly gentleman and a small girl that must be his granddaughter. It looked like her table would mostly consist of octogenarians and their much younger relatives who were squealing with delight at meeting the heroin.  


Lucky. He would have totally paid whatever it took to have dinner with Ladybug. But then, he couldn’t be here as Cat Noir. As Adrien, he had been asked to attend since many teenage French girls would pay the high price to be near him. However—to his father’s disappointment—he had made up a story about an internet stalker as an excuse to stay out of the public eye for a few weeks.  


After a quick wave to Ladybug, he sat at his own table, taking note that many of the diners were elderly widows. He had attended several charities as Adrien in the same circumstances and knew what to expect. Five-course meal, polite questions, and maybe some cheek pinching.  


The dinner went according to plan. _Amuse bouche. _Handsome? Me? Why thank you. Soup. Yes, it is dangerous work._ Entrée._ I’m happy serving Paris. Main course. Yes, black is a slimming color. Cheese course. Plagg would have been jealous. Dessert. Followed by only one cheek-pincher, and she was a strong one. Hopefully, it wouldn’t leave a mark.  


Between courses, he glanced at the other celebrities nearby: Jagged Stone, Mrs.Chamack, XY, and even his father had his own table. And of course, his eyes lingered at Ladybug’s table, his mind silently repeated his poems.  


After the waiters cleared away dishes and napkins, the host of the evening announced the after-dinner entertainment to begin, an auction. Seeing his father slowly make his way to the exit, shaking hands and speaking a quick word here and there, Cat Noir decided to follow his example. It’s not like he could bid on a rare Ming vase; he left his wallet in his other superhero costume.  


Seeing Ladybug giving a girl of about five years of age a hug, he waited for her to be alone before approaching.  


“It looks like I have some competition as your biggest fan, my Lady.”  


“You aren’t even close,” Ladybug said, her expression changing to one better suited for bantering. “She has every piece of merchandise ever made of Ladybug, including a custom-made outfit, an almost-exact replica of my yo-yo, and earrings that beep.”  


Cat Noir whistled. “That’s it. I surrender. She has the title.”  


Ladybug laughed.  


Oh, how he loved that laugh. How could he immortalize it in poetry? Bells? No, too cliché. Sunshine?  


“Do you want to get out of here?” he asked. “I think I’ve had my fill of food and socializing.”  


Ladybug watched the crowd gather for the auction. Nobody lingered nearby. “I guess we can leave. It is getting a little warm in here.”  


Excitement building, Cat Noir bowed at the open window. “Ladies first.”  


Throwing her yo-yo, she swung away with Cat Noir on her tail.  


They traveled above the streets of Paris before stopping on a rooftop that was a tad higher than the others with a view of the city lights. Ladybug leaned up against a chimney, ready to chat. Their time together wasn’t all fighting akumas and charity events; occasionally they strategized together, hypothesized about Hawkmoth’s identity, and, yes, even talked about the difficulties of being a teenage superhero.  


But this time, he hoped it would be different.  


“What’s up, Cat?”  


With her eyes on his, his mind became a total blank. What was he going to tell her? Something about poetry?  


“It’s just that…your eyes tonight…they’re so blue, they could have been painted…with paint.”  


Ladybug gave him a wry smile. “What’s up with you tonight? Cat got your tongue?”  


“Sorry. It’s just, sometimes when you look at me, I become speechless.”  


_Cliché,_ the cynical side of his mind said. He wanted to punch that cynical side.  


Ladybug looked away, her mouth almost frowning.  


_Come on. Where’s the flirty Cat Noir? You can do this.  
_

“It’s just, sometimes my words get lost following you. They have to be quick to keep up with you. When you move, it’s like you’re dancing to music I can’t hear. I’d like to join in with the dance, if you’d let me.” He held out his hand, invitingly.  


She pushed away from the chimney. “Don’t do this, Cat Noir.”  


“Please, just listen to me. I don’t want our relationship to be just these masks.” He felt that if he could express himself completely, she would feel the same.  


Ladybug crossed her arms protectively but didn’t say anything. Was that an indication that he should continue? It wasn’t encouraging.  


Already feeling rejected, he lowered his head. “Never mind. I’m sorry.”  


“I’m sorry, too. As I told you before, I really like this guy.”  


“He must really be amazing,” Cat Noir said, trying not to pout.  


“He is.” Ladybug turned her back on him, looking at the stars. “When he looks at me, I feel like a full moon, bursting with soft light. I wish I could be closer to him, but like the stars, it looks as if I’m right next to him, but we’re miles apart. When he smiles, it’s like a song.”  


“Wow, he does sound amazing.” Cat Noir tried to hide his bitterness, but it was buttered all over his words.  


“I didn’t volunteer this. You’re the one who asked,” Ladybug defended.  


“Sorry. I’m just…if only I had told you sooner, maybe…”  


“I’ve liked him for a long time, Cat. I can’t turn off my feelings for him. You are awesome, Cat, and I can’t be Ladybug without you. Even if I don’t have the same feelings, I still care about you. We’re friends.”  


“Just friends,” Cat Noir sighed, lowering his head. “But I also can’t turn off my feelings for you. Whenever you’re ready, I’m right here.”  


This seemed to surprise Ladybug. She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you.” A pause. “I think I’m going to go home.”  


“I’m going to stay out here for a while,” Cat Noir said, crouching down. He watched her swing away with a sigh.  


_What did I expect? That I’d finally wear her down, and she would love me, too? _This hadn’t been his first rejection, nor had she given the impression that she felt otherwise. Was he a hopeless optimist, or just a glutton for punishment?

***

The next day, Adrien dragged himself to school, rubbing his eyes and trying not to yawn so widely that it’d crack his jaw. Being rejected a second time was harder than the first, especially since he remained out the entire night, moping.  


, as he sat at his table and waited for class to start, he pulled out his notebook and reread his attempts at writing sonnets. They were all about Ladybug. He wanted to rip them out and throw them away. He began wadding them, but then remembered Miss Bustier’s warning that she could call on anyone.  


“Adri-kins!”  


Adrien winced. He had asked Chloe not to use that name, but he didn’t have the energy to correct her.  


With no Nino around, Chloe plopped down next to him, snuggled up close as she chatted animatedly. After a few minutes, she noticed Adrien’s mood.  


“What’s wrong, Adri-kins?”  


“Huh?”  


“You look…sad?”  


Her concern surprised him. She had never been this observant before. She was changing, maturing, even if it was small progress.  


“I guess I am a little.”  


“Why?”  


He didn’t want to get into his problems, so he lied. “Uh…my poems are just…terrible. Horrible. Shakespeare would cry in his grave if he read them.”  


“Oh, who cares about that? It’s just a stupid assignment. I had Sabrina write a few for me. Spoiler alert: They’re all about you.”  


“Chloe, I’m flattered, but you really should do your own work,” Adrien said half-heartedly, thinking she would ignore his admonitions as usual. “School is really important. Besides, I’d much rather hear a poem that you wrote yourself.”  


“You would?”  


“Yeah, of course. Poetry is more beautiful if it comes from the heart.”  


“Huh.”  


At that time, Nino walked in, and Chloe relinquished the seat without protest. She walked silently to her table, took out her phone, and started moving her thumbs.  


Five minutes later, Miss Bustier entered and began class.  


“Settle down. We’ll begin by reading a few of your poems. Hmmmm, Chloe, why don’t you go first?”  


The mayor’s daughter looked caught off-guard, but she stood up without protest. Sabrina tried to hand her a few typed papers, but Chloe ignored this, only carrying her phone. She looked almost shy, so unlike Chloe. She read from her device.

“Your hair is blond, as is mine, of course  
But you have green eyes while mine are blue  
If you were an ad, I’d give you my endorse  
I like you more than my closet of shoes.”

“I only had time to write one stanza,” Chloe said, sounding defensive.  


“It was a good start. Did you like writing it?” Miss Bustier asked.  


“I guess.” She gave a half-smile.  


“Now, can anyone give Chloe some _constructive _criticism?” the teacher asked, addressing the rest of the class.  


In previous classes when given creative writing assignments, Miss Bustier encouraged the students to give suggestions to help each other improve their work, but on the condition that they can also say something nice as well.  


Rose raised her hand first. “I liked how Chloe made a comparison in her poem but also showed that everyone is different. But maybe instead of saying ‘green’ or ‘blue,’ she could use a specific shade, like ‘azure’ or ‘mint’.”  


“Excellent suggestion. I also liked the duel nature of the poem,” Miss Bustier added.  


Alya raised her hand. “Except for the last line, the poem wasn’t in the ten-syllable format of a sonnet.” A pause. “But I thought rhyming ‘course’ and ‘endorse’ was kind of clever. She added a humorous element to the poem, so it has a kind of rom-com vibe.”  


Chloe kept her arms folded, but she seemed pleased about the comments.  


Adrien then raised his hand. “I liked the part about liking the person more than a closet of shoes. Knowing Chloe, that’s a whole lot. I’d like to read the whole poem when she’s done.”  


“Chloe, it sounds like you have some great feedback. Maybe next time I call on you, you’ll be able to read the whole poem.”  


“I’ll try, I guess,” Chloe said in her usual manner before sitting down.  


“Oh, and that reminds me. You will all be assigned critiquing partners,” Miss Bustier announced. “And it’s going to be boy/girl partners.”  


This caused quite a stir.  


“Since you’re already interested in Chloe’s poem, Adrien, you’ll be her partner.”  


“Okay.”  


There was a groan behind him. When he looked back, he wasn’t sure who made it.  


“Let’s have one more poem read before we move on. Marinette, how about you?”  


“Um, okay.” She carefully made her way to the front, notebook close to her chest and eyes darting all over.  


Adrien mentally cheered her on, sensing her shyness.  


Taking a deep breath, she began, eyes locked onto the paper. As she spoke, her voice relaxed, taking on a tone of confidence.

“Like the water, you cause ripples, storming,  
Moving outward, shifting all in your path.  
And I am a leaf, bobbing and forming  
Into something new in the aftermath.  
When you look at me, I feel like the moon  
Full, bursting with soft light, Serenity.  
I wax and wane at the touch of Fortune,  
Trying to find my own identity.  
I long to be close, to be by your side,  
But like the stars at night, luminescent,  
We are miles apart. I can’t meet your stride.  
The world is just too much, too incessant.  
When I’m overwhelmed, I return to you  
Calming, gentle, your smile sounds like a song.”

When she finished, she listened attentively as other students offered comments.  


But Adrien blocked this out as his heartbeat drowned out all other sounds. The words and phrases were fresh in his mind from the other night. They were Ladybug’s words. It couldn’t have been a coincident. There was no other way.  


He looked at Marinette in a completely different way. The shape of her lips, the brightness of her eyes, the intonation and inflections in her voice. How did he not see the similarities earlier?  


Marinette was Ladybug.  


But she hid it well. Along with the resemblances, there were differences. Ladybug never stuttered. Marinette didn’t seem as confident as the superheroin. All those times the young woman had tripped or slipped or did something clumsy, they were nothing like the gracefulness of Ladybug.  


“Adrien, do you have something to add?”  


It was Nino’s elbow that broke him out of the mental shock. “Dude.”  


“Uh…add?”  


“To Marinette’s poem? It looked like you had something to say with your mouth hanging open,” Miss Bustier said expectantly.  


The class tittered at his expense.  


“Oh, I…liked it?” he said uncertainly. What could he say? What should he say? His mind wasn’t working. He needed time to recover from the mind-blowing news. He grasped onto a thought and ran with it. “I…liked the part about the speaker being the moon since historically it has always been associated with women. However, I was a bit confused by you associating the subject of the poem as water when bodies of water, like the ocean or sea, have always been thought of as feminine as well.”  


Adrien quickly stopped talking. _Did I just accuse Marinette of being a lesbian? Oh crap, please say she won’t get offended by that._  


“Um…yeah, I-I wasn’t too certain about that,” Marinette said, blushing. “But it represents him. It added a personal touch, referring to him specifically without using physical description.”  


“Not to mention,” Alya jumped in, “in many mythologies, the ocean is ruled by males, like Poseidon, Triton and Neptune.”  


Adrien sighed with relief, both that Marinette wasn’t embarrassed by his comment and that Ladybug/Marinette was into guys.  


As Miss Bustier moved on to lecture about the next type of poem, Adrien tried hard not to follow Marinette back to her seat with his eyes. Ladybug had been near him all this time. She knew him, and he knew her. He would see her every day.  


He wanted to celebrate. He wanted to talk to her at that moment. He needed to be in her presence.  


But what then? Ladybug still didn’t like Cat Noir. Check that; Marinette didn’t like Cat Noir. She liked someone else. But who? There was a large possibility that he went to their school. Who could it be?  


He thought back on her poem, trying to remember phrases. Marinette used water as a symbol for the guy. Was it Kim? Wasn’t he on the swim team? Or it could be Nino? His friend had that habit of blowing bubbles. No, Marinette wouldn’t like a guy her best friend was dating. Or was it Nathaniel? He did have that crush on her. Or it could be some guy in a different class. Or a different grade.  


And what did she mean: his smile was like a song? What kind of guy smiles like that? Oh, look at my smile, listen to the music.  


Grumbling, Adrien took notes but didn’t enjoy the lesson, thinking dark thoughts of every male in the school. Without meaning to, Adrien had his first taste of envy for a guy that he didn’t even know.


	2. Marinette Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is very similar to Chapter 1. It does have similar scenes, but the ending shows where the two alternate realities branch off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello. I apologize to those waiting for the next chapter. I try to update every Sunday, which I had a five week streak, until I broke my left pinky finger--which is the finger in charge of the "A" key (and others). Typing has been slow and a bit strenuous since then. I actually broke my finger over two months ago, but for five weeks, I didn't know it was broken until I had it X-rayed. And after over two months, it still hurts. I go in a week to have it re-X-Rayed, and if its still broken, I'll need surgery. So, that's my excuse. I'll try to get another up next week.
> 
> I also apologize since this chapter will have a few scenes similar to chapter 1. I hope that I'm explaining this clearly so nobody is confused, but the Adrien chapters and the Marinette chapters will be two different realities, each branching off on their own plots.

Marinette made sure to wake up early for school. For one, as the class rep, she had a meeting with her mentoring teacher an hour before class; for another, she wanted to spend a little more time on her science paper. This was a very special project since she was partnered with Adrien. Science wasn’t her best, or favorite, subject, and she wanted to put an extra effort into the assignment.  


After her meeting, she headed to her classroom, expecting some peace and quiet; however, she wasn’t surprised to see Alya was already there. Because of her “crazy family”—Alya’s words—she had taken to updating her Ladyblog at school.  


“Hey, girl,” her friend greeted before she locked back onto her phone, thumbs going a million miles an hour.  


“How do you not have carpal tunnel?” Marinette joked.  


“It’s in the genes,” Alya winked. “You should thumb wrestle my mom sometime.”  


Marinette laughed then pulled out her science paper. “I’m glad you’re here. I want some help with my paper.”  


“Hello, Marinette. That’s why you have a partner. In fact, you should add mistakes so you’ll have to spend more time with Adrien.”  


Marinette blushed and shook her head. “No, I don’t want him to think I’m some sort of airhead. I want to show him that I’m smart and hard-working. Which is why I need your help, since you’re a professional writer.”  


“Professional writer? When did that happen?”  


“I don’t know. When was it you were bragging about making money from your blog?”  


Alya laughed. “Yesterday, and I’ve made like an euro. That doesn’t make me a professional writer.”  


“Please?” Marinette asked, trying to imitate Manon’s baby doll eyes.  


But Alya was a pro; she didn’t give in. “You need to quit dickering around and finally ask Adrien out. He’s not going to be single all his life. If you don’t, somebody else will.”  


Marinette slumped in her seat. “I know. I’m working on it. I’m feeling more and more comfortable around him. When we worked together on our paper, I only stuttered every other sentence.”  


“Well, I guess that’s progress.”  


“And I kind of think that he may, maybe a little, might like me, too,” Marinette said uncertainly.  


Before Alya could say anything, they heard a noise. Looking up, they saw a glimpse of a familiar yellow jacket and blonde ponytail, exiting the room.  


“Was that Chloe?” Alya asked, standing up.  


“Did she hear what we were saying?” Marinette asked, looking frantic.  


“Don’t freak out,” Alya cautioned. “She probably saw us and decided not to come in. She’s such a snob.”  


“But we weren’t whispering. She could have heard.”  


“Maybe not.”  


“If she did, she’ll spread it all over school,” Marinette squeaked in horror. “She’ll tell Adrien.”  


“Weren’t you going to tell him anyways?”  


“But she’ll do it in a way that will make me look bad. This is a disaster.”  


The phrase, “Don’t cry over spilt milk” obviously didn’t apply to Marinette. She firmly believed in Murphy’s Law and knew things would end badly.  


“There’s only one thing left for you to do. We’ll have to change your identity, dye your hair and get you a fake ID,” Alya concluded.  


“Alya…”  


“Or you can roll with the punches. Even if Chloe does talk, shrug it off. Adrien’s a smart boy. He knows what kind of person you are, especially since you’re so smart and spent so much time on this paper.”  


Marinette begrudgingly smiled.  


At that time, Nino walked in, scooting next to his girlfriend. That ended all talk about Adrien. As Marinette did some last minute corrections to her assignment, Alya talked to Nino about her latest Ladyblog entry. Not long after that, Adrien walked in.  


It was as if the room brightened. Their eyes met, and Marinette smiled. Then she realized that Chloe was clinging to him like a cat to a scratching post.  


They exchanged greetings, then got right down to business, comparing notes.  


“D-did you like the thesis I made with the changes?” Marinette stuttered, feeling the pressure both by talking to Adrien and the thought of what Chloe overheard.  


Chloe laughed cruelly at Marinette’s mistake.  


“I mean, did you like the changes I made?” Marinette repeated, this time pronouncing each word carefully. Her face radiated heat.  


She liked how Adrien always could ignore her verbal mistakes, speaking gently, which calmed her. “Yeah, I liked your opening sentence. I think it will catch the teacher’s attention much better. However, here and here, I liked what we had before. Oh, and we missed a comma here.”  


Marinette made the correction on her paper so she could type it up later. Another thing she noticed when working with Adrien the day before was that he made compromises. She could argue her point, which he listened to attentively, and gave in or not reasonably. However, today’s work was painful as Chloe mocked every time she misspoke.  


After the sixth time, Alya stepped in. “Geez, lay off. Can’t you see they’re working? They spent a ton of time on this paper.”  


Marinette loved Alya for coming to her rescue, but somehow, her friend’s interruption seemed to make it worse. She felt the deadly glare of Chloe turn into lasers.  


“Yeah, a lot of time?” Chloe repeated, her voice icy. “Adrien, what do you think of Marinette?”  


If her heart was an earthquake, it’d be a 10.0 on the Richter scale.  


“Marinette’s a smart girl. She’s worked very hard on this paper, and I’m glad we are partners. I like working with her.”  


Marinette felt herself flying. It was like they were synchronized with each other. Wasn’t that what she hoped he’d think of her?”  


Chloe popped the happiness bubble, her smile wicked. “Yeah, but what do you_ think _of her? Like, is she your friend?”  


“Of course, we’re friends. No doubt?”  


“Really good friends?”  


“Yes.”  


“So, you think of her as_ just _a friend?”  


Marinette’s earlier joy cracked, her face freezing. She hadn’t understood why Chloe was asking these questions until now.  


“Yes, we’re friends. And I hope that we’ll continue to be friends for a long time.” His tone was final.  


Chloe smiled like the cat who ate a whole petstore of canaries. “I’m glad to hear it. It’s so nice that you two are _friends_.” She left, looking smug.  


That was it; Chloe did overhear the conversation Marinette had with Alya. And this was her retort.  


“Okay, where were we…? What do you think about switching these two sentences? I think we could…Marinette, are you okay?”  


So consumed by what had occurred, Marinette didn’t realize that she was biting her lip. She felt like she was about to cry. Chloe might as well have shouted in Adrien’s face about her feelings. And worse of all, she had been put in her place, front and center in the _friend zone_.  


Adrien put his hand over hers. “Please don’t let Chloe get to you. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything earlier. It’s just…she’s my friend, too, and sometimes I don’t know what to say.”  


Caught off-guard by his physical touch, Marinette stuttered, “I-I understand. I-I hope you didn’t get the imprinted—I mean, important—I mean—“ She had been in such a hurry to cover up the damage Chloe had caused that she couldn’t say the right word.  


Luckily Adrien stopped her with a gesture. “Maybe now that Chloe knows that I’m friends with both of you, she’ll be nicer.”  


_Fat chance, _Marinette thought. Even after Chloe’s party and trying to appease Adrien by being nicer, their rivalry was as ruthless as ever. The only thing that made her feel better was that Chloe seemed to be in the same boat; they were both Adrien’s friends and nothing more.  


Miss Bustier began class right on time, and Adrien moved to his seat at the front. As chipper and energetic as always, their teacher began the daily lecture, introducing the new topic: poetry.  


Normally, Marinette would have paid close attention, especially since it promised an opportunity to express herself creatively and give her inspiration for her own projects, but today she couldn’t muster the energy. It felt as if her whole day had been ruined.

***

Throughout the day, Alya made attempts to cheer up her friend, but Marinette just wanted to be in a bad mood. She kept her attitude to herself, careful not to offend anyone and give Hawkmoth an opportunity to akumatize them. However, part of her wanted there to be an attack; she could have used an outlet for her frustration. Unfortunately—fortunately for the rest of Paris—the day was akuma-free.  


When school ended, she didn’t linger with friends, giving the excuse that she needed to finish her homework early. It wasn’t a lie. She only had until sundown to finish her academic tasks before heading to a charity event as Ladybug.  


First thing she did when arriving home was to say hello to her parents before grabbing a handful of day-old cookies her parents couldn’t sell. In her room, she set about typing up the final draft of the science paper as Tikki crunched the sugary treat.  


Once typed, Marinette did one last spell and grammar check before sending it to Adrien for approval. With that out of the way, she attacked all her other subjects, leaving the sonnet for last since she really didn’t want to write it.  


However, Tikki was keen on poetry.  


“Poetry is one of the most wonderful ways of expressing yourself,” Tikki told Marinette once the teenager finally faced the project. “It’s like the music of the soul. In fact, most song lyrics are in poem form.”  


Marinette smiled. “I guess I can just think of it as writing a song.”  


“But most songs don’t use a sonnet format.”  


Forgetting the lesson, Marinette had to reference her notes. “A sonnet has fourteen lines, each with ten syllables. The rhyming must go ABABCDCDEFEFGG. That’s a lot of lines.”  


“And you need to use the theme of love,” Tikki reminded her. Since the Kwami had heard everything Marinette had, she knew this was a sensitive subject today. “You don’t have to make the poem personal. Just write about love in general.”  


Marinette melted into a puddle of self-pity. “I don’t think I can do this. Love seems so…unattainable right now. I’ve been friend-zoned, and it sucks.”  


“Friendship can grow into something more,” Tikki consoled. “Alya and Nino were friends, and now they’re dating. All it takes is one moment to create a spark.”  


“Like being locked in a panther cage together,” Marinette said, remembering that day. “If only someone would lock me and Adrien together.”  


“Or it could just be someone admitting _her_ feelings to the other,” Tikki hinted.  


Marinette gave her friend a wry smile. “You’re such a match-maker, Tikki. But I don’t know if I can. I know with the way I talk in front of Adrien, I’m just going to mess it up.”  


“Don’t be so down on yourself. Use this assignment as an opportunity to write down your true feelings; that way you know what to say,” Tikki suggested. “And instead of sending an unsigned note, read it to him in person.”  


This bolstered Marinette’s resolve. “Okay, I’ll do it.”  


She started scribbling lines down before sighing and crossing everything out. “This isn’t going to work. Miss Bustier said she could call on anyone to read to the class. If I read my poem, everyone’s going to know.”  


“Would that be so bad?” Tikki asked.  


“Yeah, kind of,” Marinette grumbled.  


Tikki shook her head. “Poetry doesn’t have to be direct. Try using metaphors or symbols to refer to Adrien.”  


“A symbol?” Marinette mulled, pulling out her phone. She typed out “Meaning of name Adrien.”  


“His name means ‘water’ or ‘sea’. That’s perfect,” Marinette said, words popping all over her brain. She remained bent over her notebook until Tikki reminded her of the charity event.  


Before leaving, she went downstairs to talk with her parents, just so they remembered they had a daughter. Between school, being class rep, her hobbies, and Ladybug duties, she struggled to spend time with the people who meant the most to her. After talking to them while cleaning up the shop and bakery, she told them she wanted to watch a movie before going to bed. Her parents respected her privacy; she had never given them reason not to, so they would leave her alone for the night. A few hugs and kisses later, she was on her roof, ready to swing away on her yo-yo.  


Minutes later, Ladybug entered the Bourgeois Hotel through an open window and was met with the applause from the patrons. It wasn’t long before she was ushered to a table with several older men and women and their granddaughters who jumped up and down at meeting THE Ladybug.  


Several girls had already bombarded her with questions when the crowd clapped again, this time celebrating the appearance of Cat Noir. That seemed to be the signal that dinner was to begin, and everyone took their seats. A kindly gentleman held her chair out before attending to his granddaughter.  


All through the meal, she tried to give each of her young fans an equal amount of attention, answering questions in turn. The grandparents remained in the background, smiling and chuckling the entire time. She talked so much, she could barely eat her food, which was a shame since the meal was exquisite, some of the best food she’d ever tasted outside her family’s bakery.  


Ladybug had a few moments to check out the other tables. If she had been of the social elite, she would have had a tough time deciding to either sit with Jagged Stone or Gabriel Agreste—although if Adrien had his own table, she would have definitely chosen him. She wondered why the young model didn’t attend, making a mental note to ask him tomorrow discretely.  


She managed a glance Cat Noir’s way, giggling as she saw an elderly woman give his cheek a strong pinch. She worried about their relationship. It was only a month ago that she found out Cat Noir was in love with Ladybug, and she turned him down. He still flirted and bantered with her, but she felt the longing in his light-hearted actions. She hated letting him down, but she couldn’t think of him as anything else but a friend.  


When the meal ended, the girls were reluctant to go, throwing out one last question and getting a high-five before their grandparents dragged them home, skipping the auction for bedtime. The last little girl, the most zealous of the bunch, insisted on talking to the very end.  


Alone at last, Ladybug felt mentally exhausted. There was only so much attention she could take. Cat Noir’s presence caught her eye; he was obviously waiting for this moment to approach.  


“It looks like I have some competition as your biggest fan, my Lady.”  


“You aren’t even close. She has every piece of merchandise ever made of Ladybug, including a custom-made outfit, an almost-exact replica of my yo-yo, and earrings that beep.” The girl had talked extensively of her collection.  


Cat Noir whistled. “That’s it. I surrender. She has the title.”  


She relaxed as she laughed. What would she have done without Cat Noir as her partner? She couldn’t imagine being Ladybug without him.  


“Do you want to get out of here? I think I’ve had my fill of food and socializing.” He pointed toward the open window.  


Ladybug guessed her partner wanted to talk somewhere private. She glanced around, making sure they were no longer needed. “I guess we can leave. It is getting a little warm in here.”  


Bowing at the open window, Cat Noir gave her a wink. “Ladies first.”  


Once traveling over rooftops, she moved aimlessly, relishing the fresh air and the beauty of the lights of Paris. Only when she had stretched out all the restlessness from her muscles did she land on a roof and leaned against the chimney.  


“What’s up, Cat?” she asked, curious as to why he wanted to talk.  


There was a pause, and she caught him staring at her.  


“It’s just that…your eyes tonight…they’re so blue, they could have been painted…with paint.”  


Ladybug smirked. “What’s up with you tonight? Cat got your tongue?” She turned the situation into a joke, but inside, she felt her guts were swirling and twirling. If Cat Noir was going where she thought he was going, this wouldn’t end well.  


“Sorry. It’s just, sometimes when you look at me, I become speechless.”  


She almost said, “For once,” or something to that effect. She’d never known Cat Noir to be speechless. She wanted to make the joke to stop him from continuing on, but she hesitated.  


“It’s just, sometimes my words get lost following you. They have to be quick to keep up with you. When you move, it’s like you’re dancing to music I can’t hear. I’d like to join in with the dance, if you’d let me.” He held out his hand dramatically.  


Ladybug moved away from the chimney. Poetry. That was new for him. “Don’t do this, Cat Noir,” she sighed.  


“Please, just listen to me. I don’t want our relationship to be just these masks,” Cat Noir pleaded.  


Feeling uncomfortable, but all the same, she crossed her arms and remained silent. She would listen.  


Yet, Cat Noir’s face fell from hopeful to disappointed. “Never mind. I’m sorry.”  


Somehow, Ladybug felt as if she were the bad guy in this situation. She tried to alleviate Cat Noir’s hurt feelings. “I’m sorry, too. As I told you before, I really like this guy.”  


“He must really be amazing,” Cat Noir pouted. Jealousy didn’t become him.  


And even in this situation, Ladybug felt her heart swell with the thought of Adrien. Perhaps Cat Noir’s attempt at poetry had reminded her of her school assignment as she replied. “He is. When he looks at me, I feel like a full moon, bursting with soft light. I wish I could be closer to him, but like the stars, it looks as if I’m right next to him, but we’re miles apart. When he smiles, it’s like a song.”  


“Wow, he does sound amazing,” Cat Noir said bitterly.  


Offended by his tone, Ladybug went on the defense. “I didn’t volunteer this. You’re the one who asked.”  


“Sorry. I’m just…if only I had told you sooner, maybe…”  


“I’ve liked him for a long time, Cat.” Ladybug remembered that day she first fell for Adrien Agreste, the exact moment in the rain with the umbrella. “I can’t turn off my feelings for him. You are awesome, Cat, and I can’t be Ladybug without you. Even if I don’t have the same feelings, I still care about you. We’re friends.”  


She couldn’t help seeing the parallels in her life at that moment. Adrien had said nearly the same thing to her that day. It was still a fresh wound.  


“Just friends,” Cat Noir said, resigned. “But I also can’t turn off my feelings for you. Whenever you’re ready, I’m right here.”  


It was reassuring. Ladybug kissed his cheek as friends do. “Thank you.” She moved away. She didn’t want to abandon him, but she also wanted to distance herself from the situation. “I think I’m going to go home.” She hoped he’d do the same.  


“I’m going to stay out here for a while,” Cat Noir said, crouching down.  


That’s what she was afraid of. Perhaps the late night, the loneliness, came with the territory of the black cat Miraculous.  


She had no other words to offer, so she swung away, wishing that the night had ended differently. 

***  


Even though she talked to Tikki the night before about Cat Noir’s words and then going to bed at a reasonable time, Marinette tossed all night as if she were wrestling a blanket monster. Her hopes that his feelings for her would eventually fade were dashed. Why couldn’t he just move on?  


She wished it was the weekend. She contemplated pretending to be sick, to stay home for just one day, but her morals won. Drudging to school, she wished desperately for an akuma-free day so she wouldn’t have to see Cat Noir so soon after breaking his heart yet again.  


To make the day even worse, as she walked into class, her first sight was Chloe cozying up to Adrien, their heads together. They almost looked like boyfriend and girlfriend. Marinette wanted to scream. No, they couldn’t be dating. Chloe would be shouting it from the rooftops if they were. Trying to ignore the scene, she went to her seat, pulled out her sketchbook, and designed a few outfits, her happy place.  


When class began, Marinette put her sketchbook away out of respect for Miss Bustier, but she still scrawled doodles over her notes, distracted. When Chloe was called to read her poem to the class, Marinette rolled her eyes dramatically at the vapid attempt at a tribute to a boy—obviously Adrien. Then came the constructive criticism.  


Marinette was tempted to give Chloe some critique, but felt it wouldn’t reflect well on her as the class rep if she took out her frustration on the blonde.  


“I liked how Chloe made a comparison in her poem but also showed that everyone is different,” Rose volunteered. “But maybe instead of saying ‘green’ or ‘blue,’ she could use a specific shade like ‘azure’ or ‘mint’.”  


Rose’s comment drove out some of Marinette’s dark thoughts. Rose was one of the sweetest, most considerate girls in class. She hardly ever let Chloe’s bad attitude get her down.  


Besides, if she had to pick Adrien Agreste’s exact eye hue, it would be emerald. Emerald eyes. She jotted that down, wondering if she could somehow slip it into a poem without the whole class finding out her secret.  


Surprisingly, Alya raised her hand next. Perhaps getting back at Chloe through a class assignment wasn’t below her. “Except for the last line, the poem wasn’t in the ten-syllable format of a sonnet.”  


Marinette glanced at Alya’s notebook. She had been counting the syllables carefully. How observant.  


As if it were an afterthought, Alya added, “But I thought rhyming ‘course’ and ‘endorse’ was kind of clever. She added a humorous element to the poem, so it has a kind of rom-com vibe.”  


As per Miss Bustier’s rule, Alya had to say something nice about Chloe’s poem, but did she have to be that nice? Marinette realized that her bad mood was making her bitter, perhaps even jealous of her rival. Did she want to be _that _kind of person? More importantly, what would Adrien think if he knew her thoughts? After all, Chloe was his friend. He cared about her.  


Feeling more civil, Marinette had decided to submit a comment, to show that she could put aside her differences, even for her bitter enemy, but before she could raise her hand, Adrien beat her to it.  


“I liked the part about liking the person more than a closet of shoes. Knowing Chloe, that’s a whole lot. I’d like to read the whole poem when she’s done.”  


“Chloe, it sounds like you have some great feedback,” Miss Bustier commented, gesturing for the girl to sit. “Maybe next time I call on you, you’ll be able to read the whole poem.”  


“I’ll try, I guess,” Chloe said in her usual manner before sitting down.  


“You can totally tell that poem was all Chloe’s creation,” Alya whispered. “I was surprised she had that much done.”  


“But at least she did it herself,” Marinette added. “When was the last time Chloe did an assignment on her own?”  


That stunned Alya enough she didn’t reply.  


“Oh, and that reminds me,” Miss Bustier added, clapping her hands together once. “You will all be assigned critiquing partners. And it’s going to be boy/girl partners.”  


Nino turned around to wink at his girlfriend. Others in the class tittered. Marinette’s heart raced, knowing who she wished she could be paired with.  


“Since you’re already interested in Chloe’s poem, Adrien, you’ll be her partner.”  


“Okay.”  


Marinette groaned louder than she intended. When Adrien turned around, she pretended to be busy with her notebook.  


“Let’s have one more poem read before we move on.”  


Marinette simultaneously hoped it would and wouldn’t be her. She wanted Adrien to hear the poem, but at the same time, was embarrassed that he might guess it was about him. Worse, that the rest of the class would guess the same thing.  


“Adrien, how about you?”  


Marinette perked up, her anticipation revved up to a ten.  


“Uh…okay.” The young man didn’t sound enthusiastic. The paper he held had been crinkled and smoothed out again, as if he wanted to throw it away but changed his mind at the last minute.  


As Adrien began to recite, Marinette’s eyes locked onto his face, her ears attuned to his voice, her whole soul receptive to his words.

“How is that when you move, you’re dancing  
To rhythm and music that I can’t see.  
Swaying and flying, daring, entrancing,  
I’d like to join in if you’d let me.  
But I stand in your shadow, and my words  
Get lost following after you, fleeting.  
I don’t want you to go, you have misheard  
Me. Why am I always repeating?  
If only my mouth had been hastier,  
If only we didn’t have to hide our pasts  
But we are nothing between each other  
But the masks we wear. Now the die is cast,  
And we spend each day apart, unknowing.  
I can’t stop it, my love is ongoing.”

She had let her body relax—maybe too relaxed—for when the words started to sound familiar, her jaw became slack and her body felt weak. It took all of her faculties just to remain upright, she felt so blown away.  


_No, no, no, no. This can’t be. Adrien…he can’t be…  
_

But it was. Even though Alya had introduced the theory not that long ago, Marinette had turned a blind eye, but now that she could no longer ride the denial train. She saw the similarities. They had the same height, the same build, the same complexion, the same hair, and the same voice.  


_Adrien is Cat Noir.  
_

But they were so different. Adrien didn’t act like Cat. He didn’t tell any goofy jokes. He wasn’t a show off. He never flirted with her. And Cat…he…loved her.  
Adrien was in love with her.  


That did it. She couldn’t hold back the emotions that were racing through her blood like hounds after a fox. She was either going to scream, faint or start laughing hysterically, whichever it would be, she would then die of embarrassment.  


“Miss Bustier, may I be excused. I…need to go…you know…”  


The teacher dismissed her with a nod, and Marinette tried not to race out, tried not to look at Adrien, tried not to let her blushing face show.  


She barely made it to the bathroom, collapsing onto the floor in a hot mess of a heap, hyperventilating as her body tried to make up its mind on how she should feel. And more importantly, what was she going to do in the future. The words of Adrien’s poem kept repeating in her mind, replaying the night before when she told Cat Noir that she just wanted to be friends.  


Just friends.  


And there was the dilemma. She had put Cat Noir—Adrien—staunching and irreparably in the friend zone.


	3. Adrien Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In chapter 1: Adrien Part 1, Adrien has just found out that Marinette is Ladybug when she read a romantic sonnet to the class. In this chapter, he is trying to find out who her crush is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update on my finger: It's been over two months since I broke my finger. It still hurts, so I'm going to the doctor's tomorrow to have it another X-ray. I've been typing more lately, which makes my finger hurt, but I can't stop. I'm a writer. I have to write! I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. Please let me know if you like it.

Adrien had a plan. And it was a good plan. He even wrote it down.  


Step 1: Talk to Nino.  


As the guy who was dating Marinette’s best friend, he might have some intel on who Marinette liked. He just had to bring the subject up casually.  


As school dismissed the classes for lunch, Adrien walked with his best friend.  


“Hey, Nino, do you know if Marinette is dating anyone?”  


_Way to be casual,_ Adrien berated. He couldn’t help himself. Thinking about Ladybug—Marinette—liking some other guy drove him crazy.  


“No. But there’s some guy she’s totally crushing on,” Nino said. He grinned at the blond. “Why? Are you interested?”  


Adrien leaned away, feeling cornered. “Me? Ah, not really. I’m asking for ahhhh…a friend. He’s really shy.”  


“Well, tell him he may want to wait. According to Alya, she’s completely hung up on this guy.”  


“Who is it?”  


“Don’t know. It’s really secret, hush-hush. Which is too bad. You know Marinette. She’ll never say anything to this guy, who has no idea.” Nino chuckled. “Apparently this dude is thick, like, he completely doesn’t see that Marinette is infatuated with him even though it’s totally obvious.”  


“Is it?”  


Nino shrugged. “Not to me. I don’t see it.”  


Adrien nodded. They now had an understanding. They would never mention this conversation to Alya, which only proved that they were also thick and oblivious.  


“Do you want me to ask her…you know…for your friend? She’s my partner on this poem assignment.”  


Adrien weighed the pros and cons before shaking his head. He didn’t want Nino doing his dirty work. “Naw, that’s okay. I’ll persuade my friend to ask her himself.”  


“Okay. Later.”  


Adrien waved as they separated to go home to eat lunch, disappointed that his covert information gathering came up with nothing except frustration. But that was okay. He still had his plan.  


Step 2: Talk to Alya  


As Marinette’s best friend, she had exclusive access to Marinette’s life, her interests, her hobbies, her…crush. He just had to bring the subject up casually.  


He had to wait until the end of the day for an opportunity, not to mention think ahead with a game plan. Alya was fiercely defensive of Marinette. She wouldn’t give up those secrets. All he needed was a hint.  


“Hey, Alya. As a professional writer, what do you think of these poem assignments?”  


“I’m not a professional writer.”  


“But didn’t you say the other day—“  


“Yeah, but I’ve only made, like, one euro.”  


“Well then, as the closest thing this school has to a professional writer, what do you think of the poems so far? You critiqued Chloe’s poem, but what about Marinette’s?”  


“In my ‘professional’ opinion,” she said, using her fingers to make air quotes, “Marinette’s poem shows promise. She has the heart of a poet, and the soul of an artist.”  


“Sounds like you two are ripped from the same cloth.”  


Alya waggled a finger at him. “Flattery will get you nowhere. Besides, I know what you’re after.”  


“You do?” Adrien wondered if she had gotten to Nino. Did his friend break under the pressure of his girlfriend?  


“Yep. You want to know who Marinette’s poem is about.”  


“Nino told you, did he?”  


“Nino? No, why?” She looked sulky.  


Uh-oh. Hopefully he didn’t get his friend into too much trouble. “Uh…no reason. Not that I’m prying, but who is her poem about?”  


“Everyone in class is asking me that, but I’m not going to tell anyone. Not even you, Adrien,” Alya said, pointing a fingernail at his nose. “If you really want to know, you’ll have to get it out of Marinette.”  


After that, she wouldn’t say another word to Adrien. But that’s okay, he still had his plan.  


Step 3: Talk to Marinette.  


He just had to bring up the subject casually.  


He never expected to get to Step 3, sure that Alya or Nino would have said something. But here he stood, watching Marinette—Ladybug—walk away to her parents’ bakery, typing something on her phone.  


Her phone! That’s it!  


Alya knows who this secret crush is, and they probably text each other all the time. They may have mentioned his name or at least hints in their texts. All he had to do was take a peak.  


“Marinette. Marinette, wait up.”  


Turning around, the girl looked surprised, her eyes wide.  


“Hey,” Adrien called once he was nearby. “About our science paper, did you hand it in yet?”  


“N-no. It’s not due until F-Friday, and I wanted to double check with you first,” she said, brushing some hair out of her eyes. “Why?”  


“Oh, I think we may have gotten a few of our facts wrong. Let me check my phone,” he said, then pretended to search his pockets. “It looks like I forgot my phone in the classroom. Can I borrow yours?”  


Marinette smiled and handed the device over.  


Triumph! He had done it. Now to take a quick scroll through her texts and find out. But then he glanced up, seeing the innocent, trusting look on Marinette’s face. The same trust she had for Cat Noir.  


His thumb hovered over the texting ap. It wouldn’t take long. She wouldn’t know.  


It was just one little name. He wasn’t going to read all her texts, just find out one little name.  


It wasn’t that much an invasion of her privacy…  


He felt like such a jerk. What was he thinking?  


Bringing up the Internet browser, he found a website and showed it to Marinette. “Phew, we did get it right. I thought we had mixed up Barium with Boron. Now I feel much more relieved. Thanks, Marinette.”  


She gave that cute little short laugh, the one where she raised her hand to her mouth.  


Adrien found himself entranced by the little gesture. It was adorable. He wanted to hold that hand.  


“You’re Adrien, Welcome,” Marinette said with a wave. She hadn’t noticed her vocal mistake since she didn’t correct herself.  


“Simply adorable,” he whispered, waving back. He lingered for a moment, watching her leave, before heading to the obtrusive limo that idled in front of the school. He looked forward to a quiet ride home to think of his next move, to recall memories that he’d had of Marinette, to understand her better. And, of course, to interrogate Plagg. The Kwami had to have known about Marinette since the Dark Owl attack.  


But his plans came to a crashing halt when Chloe opened the door and slid in, bumping hips.  


“Chloe, what are you doing here?”  


She smiled as if it were obvious. “We’re poetry partners, Adri-kins. This assignment is totally important, so we need to work together every day, of course.”  


“Uh…” He looked toward the Gorilla for help. His bodyguard ignored the two.  


It wasn’t like he could say “no”. After the big stink he made about having an Internet stalker, he had nothing for the rest of the day.  


“I guess we could work for a while,” Adrien said, trying not to sound disappointed.  


“Eeeeee.” Chloe’s squeal could give bats seizures. “We’re gonna have so much fun. Driver, take us to Daddy’s hotel, pronto. And go fast; I hate being caught up in traffic.”  


Adrien expected the Gorilla to glare, to growl, to do something in protest, but he merely shifted the car into drive. Apparently, not even the gigantic man wanted to go head to head with Chloe.  


Once at the fancy hotel, Chloe led Adrien up to her family’s floor. The young woman ordered the help around, sending off for special foods, drinks and other things that she felt was necessary for a studious environment. Falling luxuriously onto a lounging chair, Chloe picked up a nail file and meticulously went to work.  


“Whatever happened to working on our poetry?” Adrien asked with a smirk.  


“I work better if I’m absolutely perfect,” Chloe declared, holding out her hand to observe her progress. “It’s a process.”  


Adrien sat on a couch and pulled out his notebook. “Well, how about we review on what a limerick is, and we’ll throw around ideas. Our theme today is comedy.”  


Once again, Chloe surprised him. After a few minutes of making up silly rhymes, the two were scribbling down several lines. He hadn’t known it before today but Chloe could be funny. Perhaps this poetry section of school would interest her more than fashion and gossip.  


Gossip? Perhaps Chloe had heard something about the guy Marinette liked.  


Adrien wasn’t the kind to listen for gossip, but this was an emergency. But how to bring it up to Chloe without her making a huge deal about it? He didn’t want Chloe to say anything mean about Marinette.  


“You know, I was really proud of you when you read your poem to the class,” he said, starting out with flattery. If you wanted Chloe in a good mood, you gave her a compliment.  


“You were? Oh, Adri-kins, thank you.” She threw herself at him, hugging him tightly. “I couldn’t have done it without you.” Her tone had changed, softer, without the usual edge.  


He dislodged her from his neck. They sat side-by-side on the couch. “But you know, it’s always been inside you. It wasn’t me who did it; I only gave you a small push. You could do so much more.”  


Chloe had that considering look on her face, uncertain. “I do? You really think so.”  


“Of course. You have so much potential.” Adrien gave her a big grin. He was still trying to figure out how to phrase the question he wanted to ask.  


“Well, you’d be the only one to think so,” Chloe said with a shrug. “It’s not like someone like me needs to do well in school.” Her snobbish tone had returned. “I could never figure out why you work so hard. You’re already a famous model; why waste your time with math and junk.”  


“Because there’s more to life than being famous. I don’t want to be a model all my life,” Adrien admitted. “Plus, I like school. It’s fun to learn new things, to challenge myself to do my best, to express myself creative, like with poetry. Did you notice how happy Marinette was reading her poem?” There, he had said her name. There was no going back with this line of questioning.  


“Ugh, why did the teacher have to call on her after me? She made me look bad.” Chloe folded her arms, pouting. “All that talk of moons and water, it was ridiculous.”  


“It was mysterious. I wonder who she was talking about in the poem. She must like some guy a lot with how good her poem was.” He held his breath, waiting. If Chloe knew, she would easily spill.  


Chloe spun her head around to face him, her eyes sparkling with mischief. This was it. She knew, and she was going to tell him.  


“Adrien, you don’t know?! Really?”  


“No. Do you?”  


Chloe laughed, but didn’t reply. “Oh, this is too good.”  


“What? Who is it?” He itched to get it out of her any way he could. From their childhood, he knew exactly where Chloe was ticklish.  


She stood up, laughing. “Oh, I know. I overheard her talking about it the other day. I mean, I suspected for months, but it still surprised me.”  


Adrien’s heart quickened. “Really? Who?”  


Chloe turned her back to him, posing like a runway model. She glanced back at him with one eyebrow raised. She always loved stretching out the drama. “Why do you want to know?”  


Adrien shrugged, trying not to look eager. “Because…you know how much I like riddles. Marinette’s poem was like one big riddle. I’m trying to figure it out.”  


Chloe looked him in the eye with a half-lidded gaze. “Do you like Marinette, Adrien?”  


“I told you yesterday. We’re friends.”  


She stomped her foot. “No, not like that. Do you…love her?”  


Adrien hesitated to answer, not because he considered telling the truth, but because he didn’t know what the truth was. He loved Ladybug, and by affiliation, he loved Marinette…didn’t he? Now that he considered the matter, he wondered if he really knew Marinette well enough to love her. Before today, he saw her only as a girl in his class, a friend. Was it fair to her that his feelings changed only because he found out her secret?  


“No, I don’t,” he said honestly. He realized that ever since hearing her poem, he had compared Marinette to Ladybug. Was that right?  


“Adri-kins, is there a girl that you do love?” Chloe asked, her voice going soft again.  


Before he could think, he said, “Yes.”  


“Who is it? Is it someone I know?”  


He remembered the almost fanatical way Chloe adored Ladybug. He nodded. “Yeah, you do. How about you? Do you like someone?” He mainly asked the question to get the subject off of himself.  


Chloe smiled, looking almost shy. “Oh, Adri-kins, as if you didn’t know.”  


No, he didn’t, but he remained silent.  


“It’s you,” Chloe said, tapping her finger against his nose. “I’ve loved you ever since we played together as children. And I think that you feel the same.” She placed a hand on his chest and leaned in, closing her eyes.  


“Oh,” Adrien murmured as he hopped up, dodging the kiss. “Ah, Chloe, listen. I value our friendship. I have known you longer than anyone else besides my parents. Please, don’t think that what I’m going to say next will change how I feel about you, because I will always care for you. But I am in love with someone else.” He hoped he had let her down easy.  


He guessed that Chloe would react two different ways to this news: livid or bawling. It was the former.  


“Oh, really?” she asked, hands on hips, head weaving. “And just who is this girl? Who could possibly be a better match for you than me?” Oh, she was so pissed.  


However, he thought that the truth would be the best answer. “Ladybug.” He gulped as she leaned toward him, scrutinizing. Then she snapped back to a proper posture with a confident smile.  


“Oh, in that case, I totally understand.”  


“You do?”  


“Yeah. If anyone other than me was to win your heart, I’m okay with it being Ladybug. I don’t really blame you. She’s almost as awesome as I am.” Her approval was astounding.  


Adrien sighed relieved. This had turned out better than he expected. And to think, Chloe had harvested a crush on him all these years. It was a record for her to keep that secret.  


“At least it’s not Marinette Dupaing-Chan,” Chloe condescended.  


_Oh, Chloe, why did you have to say that? _Adrien thought disappointed. It hurt to hear his friend say such things about Marinette. How would she react if she knew Ladybug’s secret?  


“Not that that matters,” Adrien said, steering the conversation back to his ulterior motive. “Marinette is in love with some other guy, whoever it is.” He gave Chloe a meaningful look.  


“Oh, right, you still don’t know,” Chloe chuckled. “I suppose it won’t hurt for me to tell. You’re totally going to laugh. It’s—“  


“Chloe Bourgeois!”  


“Huh?” Adrien wondered, knowing that another voice spoke, it sounding as if coming from beyond the walls of the hotel. But how could that be? They were up twenty or so stories up.  


A deafening pounding shook the building, and part of a wall imploded, debris shooting inward.  


Adrien jumped onto Chloe, knocking her to the floor and protecting her.  


“Chloe Bourgeois, you did this to me!”  


_What did you do this time, Chloe?_ Adrien thought as he peeked over the couch, knowing that he would find an akuma.  


A feminine figure hovered in the air outside the hole in the wall, hanging onto the sides of the hotel with snake-like tendrils of hair. She looked every bit like the Gorgons from Greek mythology.  


Just in case, Adrien ducked back down in case the akuma could turn people into stone with just a gaze.  


“Who is that, and why is she mad at you?” Adrien hissed at Chloe, knowing that any kind of information he could glean would help in the fight to come.  


Chloe shrugged, her glossy lips pouting. “What makes you think this is my fault?”  


The couch was picked up, and the akuma spotted them.  


“Chloe, let’s see how you feel after having a bad hair day.”  


That single line must have started the blonde girl’s worst nightmare, because Adrien had never heard such a blood-curdling scream before as a serpent of hair snatched Chloe up and dragged her out.  


Running to the edge, Adrien watched as the akumatized girl scaled back down the building and headed to the center of Paris.  


“Well, that makes it easier to transform in private.”  


“Plagg…” Adrien hadn’t even felt the Kwami leave his jacket pocket.  
“

What? This is classic Chloe. I’m surprised she isn’t desensitized to kidnapping by now.”  


“Plagg!”  


“If you really wanted me to shut up, you’d have said ‘Claws Out’ by now.”  


Adrien did just that.


	4. Marinette Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette just found out that Adrien is Cat Noir. Let's see how she deals with this plot twist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, yes I know this isn't Sunday. I finished it on Sunday, but I had to wait a day to edit because I was falling asleep at my computer. I did miss another week because of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and also because my finger is still broken. Ugh, I'm so sick of having a broken finger.
> 
> Anyway, I'd like to thank the few who have spent the time to read and comment on my story. I love hearing everyone's reactions and what they thought of each chapter. I love reading your comments and try to reply to each one.
> 
> Enjoy, and I hope to post next Sunday.

Marinette may have remained in the bathroom for the rest of the day, wrestling with her emotions, if it wasn’t for Tikki.  


“Marinette, what is going on? Are you okay?” Tikki’s eyes were filled with worry.  


Realizing just how far she was freaking out, Marinette took deep breaths, calming herself “A-Adrien’s poem…”  


“It was beautiful. A little rough, but if he works at it, he could be quite the poet,” Tikki said, obviously pleased. “Do you think it’s about you?”  


Shaking her head, Marinette replied, voice smoother. “It’s about Ladybug. Adrien is in love with Ladybug.”  


The Kwami’s eyes widened. “He is? Well, the poem did create some very Ladybug-like imagery. But what makes you say it is about Ladybug.”  


“Don’t his words sound familiar?”  


The Kwami shook her head.  


“They’re the same words Cat Noir said last night!” When she was merged with Tikki, the Kwami was witness to everything Marinette said and did.  


Tikki’s face turned to uncertain, then knowing, then secretive. “Well…I’m not sure if they were the exact words. They may have been similar or—”  


“Cut the crap, Tikki. I know you’re trying to keep our identities secret, but you’re a terrible liar,” Marinette said, trying not to shout. It wasn’t that she was mad at Tikki; her emotions were still running high. “I know you know. You must have seen him when we were trapped by Dark Owl.”  


Sighing, Tikki said nothing to dispute this. “You weren’t supposed to know. I’m sorry that I couldn’t tell you.”  


Realizing that her Kwami was sad, Marinette cupped her hands to hold the tiny being. “I’m sorry I yelled. It’s okay. I know you couldn’t tell me. I’m not mad. In fact, I’m probably just the opposite. I wished that I didn’t know.”  


“Really?” Tikki asked, floating an inch off Marinette’s hands. “Why? I’d thought you wanted to know everything about Adrien. You want to spend all your time with him.”  


“Yeah, but…this makes things complicated. Soooooo complicated.” Marinette leaned back against the bathroom wall, her head thumping a little too hard. “First off, my entire image of Adrien is now tainted with stupid puns and cat jokes.”  


Tikki giggled. “He did do a purr-fect job of creating a new persona.”  


“Hey, now don’t you start.” Marinette tapped the Kwami on her head teasingly. “And on top of that, I haven’t exactly been kind to Cat Noir. I’ve broken his heart. I’ve broken Adrien’s heart.” Marinette lowered her head. Just thinking about hurting Adrien, she wanted to cry.  


“Hearts can be mended.”  


“How?”  


Tikki lowered herself to sit on Marinette’s lap. “Each heart is different. I can advise you, but I won’t tell you what you should do. You’re in a unique situation. You’ll need to decide for yourself.”  


At that moment, they heard someone coming. Tikki flew into Marinette’s purse.  


“Marinette?” It was Rose.  


“Yes?” She quickly stood up.  


“Are you okay? Miss Bustier sent me to find you because you’ve been gone so long.”  


Marinette grimaced. “I have been? I’m sorry. I felt faint, which is why I rushed to the bathroom. I came in here, splashed water on my face, and put my head between my knees for a while. I guess I lost track of time.”  


“Are you feeling better?” Rose asked, deep concern all over her face. “Are you sick? Do you need to see the nurse?”  


“Oh, no. I’m fine. I think it’s because I didn’t sleep well last night.”  


Together, they walked back to class, all the way Rose interrogating Marinette about her health, even going to far as to scold in a motherly tone that she needed to take care of herself. When they returned, Miss Bustier also voiced her concern before returning to the lesson.  


“While you were gone, Marinette, I assigned everyone their partners. You will be working with Nino,” the teacher informed.  


The dark-skinned teen turned around, giving her a thumbs up, which she returned. She couldn’t have chosen a better partner outside of Adrien.  


“You’ll make sure that he’s writing beautiful, inspired poetry for me, won’t you, girl?” Alya teased in a whisper.  


Marinette giggled, feeling more relaxed. As long as she didn’t think about Cat Noir…  


“Who is your partner?” Marinette asked.  


“Ivan. It’s going to be so much fun. I’ll either be helping him with heavy metal lyrics or poems for Mylene.” Alya wrote down a few notes. “By the way, I couldn’t help noticing you ran out after Adrien’s poem. Did you see something I didn’t?” Alya gave Marinette a one-eyebrow-raised smile.  


Marinette shirked away._ Alya, why are you so good at asking the wrong questions? _she wondered as she prepared to lie. “Not really. Maybe it’s a dancer that he knows. Or another model.” She then started scribbling notes like crazy, trying to catch up with Miss Bustier’s lesson.  


“Don’t worry. I’ll have Nino do some digging. We’ll find out.” Alya winked.  


Marinette stretched out a fake smile. “Great.”

***

After class, Marinette lingered long enough to finish her class representative duties as well as gathering everything for her assignments. She was already in a goofy mood, a kaleidoscope of emotions swirling, and things only got worse when she noticed Chloe getting into Adrien’s limo. However, it didn’t bother her as much as it would have in the past. Knowing that Adrien liked Ladybug, Chloe didn’t stand a chance.  


Then an icy thought trickled down her back. Against Ladybug, Marinette didn’t stand a chance either. How could she compete against a superhero?  


And for the first time, Marinette hated Ladybug. Well, hate was too strong of a word. She resented Ladybug. If it weren’t for the Miraculouses, if it weren’t for Master Fu, if it weren’t for Hawkmoth, she would have been an ordinary teenager going to school. The same for Adrien. Perhaps then, she may have had a shot with Adrien.  


But then she wouldn’t have met Tikki. And Ladybug had given her so much, given her confidence, given her an opportunity to help her friends, save them, and get to know them better. She wouldn’t have been able to know this other side of Adrien, this goofy, silly side who likes to show off and tell jokes.  


Remembering some of Cat Noir’s antics, his sly smile, and witty remarks, she smiled. In his own way, Cat could be a charmer. If Adrien hadn’t been in the picture, would she have fallen for the black-suited superhero?  


“Urg! This is insane. They’re the same person, but I’m conflicted,” Marinette growled to herself, grabbing her head. Having forgotten she was out in public for the moment, she ran ahead to avoid the stares.  


Quieter this time, she continued, knowing Tikki was listening. “I can’t help but think of them as two different people. Even knowing that Adrien is Cat Noir, my feelings for him haven’t changed. Is that…wrong?”  


“You’ve only known for a few hours. Give yourself time to let it sink in. You don’t have to decide anything right away. It’s not like Cat Noir knows you know his identity,” Tikki spoke from the purse. “A good night’s sleep may change things.”  


Marinette brightened. “What would I do without you, Tikki? You know just the right things to say.”  


“I’m more than your Kwami. I’m also your friend. I like talking to you, Marinette, and helping you with your problems. But I want you to think about the situation carefully before you do anything. This isn’t just about your relationship with Adrien; it is also about the relationship between Ladybug and Cat Noir. Things can change when secrets come to light.”  


“So, did the other Ladybugs have this problem?”  


“There have been…incidences. It is the reason Master Fu insists on anonymity from the Miraculous holders.” Tikki was so solemn, Marinette wondered if something bad happened to a past Ladybug. She was about to ask when the usual din of the Paris streets was interrupted with a familiar screaming wail.  


“Ahhhhh. My hair. You’ve ruined it. My life is over!”  


Marinette knew that dramatic dialog anywhere. Looking around, she spotted a strange sight of a girl whose hair had come alive, long and serpentine, and using it to climb across the rooftops of Paris like a grotesque spider. Within one of these tendrils, Chloe screamed, her hair frizzy and fucia colored.  


“So much for taking a relaxing afternoon off,” Marinette announced, ducking into an empty ally.  


Before she could merge with Tikki, the Kwami cautioned her again. “Be careful. Remember, Cat Noir is still Cat Noir. Treat him just as you did before. And be careful. I’m worried about you.”  


Hearing that Tikki was worried made Marinette worry. The Kwami had never voiced these kinds of concerns before. Tikki had always been full of encouragement, positive energy, and good advice. This was a timid side to the Kwami.  


“I will,” Marinette affirmed before calling out the magic words that would transform her into Ladybug. Once masked, she used the yo-yo to pull herself up four stories into the air so to be on level with this new akuma.  


It took some time for her to catch up, and when she did, she was surprised to feel something different about the air. It felt charged, electric. She realized what it was when she bumped into a small, metal pipe sticking out of one of the roofs. She received a huge static shock, one that hurt enough that she was sure she’d have a small red mark on her leg.  


“Static electricity?” Marinette wondered, reaching up to feel her hair. Like Chloe’s, her hair was puffing up, frizzing and seemed to be twice its size.  


“That’s a good look for you, my lady,” a familiar voice called from behind her. “Although, if I were you, I would have chosen green. It’s my favorite color.”  


“Green?” Not looking up to see Cat Noir, Ladybug maneuvered her ponytail so she could see the strands. Instead of the black-blue of her natural coloring, it was cotton candy pink.  


“Ugh,” she growled, sticking out her tongue in disgust. Pink may have been her favorite color, but that didn’t mean she wanted it in her hair. “Glad to see you on the scene, kitty. Do you have any idea where the akuma is?” At that point, she turned around, relaxed and familiar with Cat Noir’s bantering and good-natured flirting. However, the moment she saw those green eye and teasing smirk, she felt week in the knees. Literally.  


“Are you okay?” Cat Noir asked, grabbing her arm before she could collapse entirely. His voice was soft, concerned. It was Adrien’s voice.  


“A-A-A…I’m find,” she stuttered, her voice out of control, her face heating up. She stepped away from his grasp.  


“Are you sure? Your face is red. There’s a flu going around.”  


“Flu? Oh, yeah, I guess I am feeling a bit under the weather,” she lied. Better he think that than suspect what was really going on. “I-It’s been making my face red all day.”  


_That will explain the blushing. Now, all I need to do is get my stammer to stop.  
_

Cat Noir blew a burst of air which ruffled his bangs. “Bad luck that an akuma attacked today. Well, how about I take lead. You hang back until I need you.” He gave her a wink. “Don’t worry, Bugaboo. This kitty is going to be claw-some.”  


What would have been an eye-roll worthy moment—both using that horrible nickname as well as the pun—now caused Ladybug’s heart to palpitate to the rhythm of a Jagged Stone song. Once where the nickname was an anathema, now became endearing. She let out a gasping, single laugh at the pun.  


“Keep it together, Ladybug,” she told herself once Cat Noir was gone. “He’s Cat Noir, the same old partner you’ve had all this time. It’s just Cat Noir.”  


But her mind and body couldn’t be lied to. She couldn’t unsee what had been seen. She saw Adrien in everything he did and say. It was Adrien that called her “Bugaboo”. It was Adrien that winked at her. It was Adrien who loved her.  


Loved Ladybug. He winked at Ladybug. He flirted with Ladybug. Not with Marinette.  


The past twenty-four hours had been an emotional roller coaster, and, at that moment, her body threatened to shut down and release the tension. She could feel her lip starting to tremble, her eyes burning, and her nose becoming moist.  


“Whoa, whoever this girl is, Chloe has royally ticked her off,” Cat Noir said from behind.  


Ladybug had been so involved in her emotional turmoil, she hadn’t heard her partner come from behind.  


“But I think I know where the akuma is hidden,” Cat Noir announced. “She has a hair-ribbon among all those tendrils. I think we’re going to need some Ladybug magic to get to it.”  


Ladybug breathed heavily, trying not to sob. Tikki had warned her. She wished she could get away from the situation just for a minute. Perhaps she could talk to the Kwami, calm down, and get some more advice, then she could be Ladybug without freaking out.  


She was about to ask for some time when she caught a look at Cat Noir, then burst out laughing.  


His hair was one big fuzz-ball as if someone had shoved his tail in an electrical socket. He may have looked like a dandelion if it wasn’t for the fact that he now had toxic-purple colored hair.  


“What?” Cat Noir asked, eyebrows down severely, head cocked to one side.  


Ladybug burst into tears as laughter wracked her body. It felt like she went into shock from the emotional one-eighty she was going through. She wondered if she had gone insane.  


“What?” Cat Noir asked again.  


“Your hair,” Ladybug shouted between laughs, hugging her ribs so they wouldn’t hurt so much. Oh, yeah. She was definitely crazy now. “The color!”  


Touching his hair, Cat Noir got a sense of its puffiness but had to pull out a few strands to get a full picture. “Purple? Now that’s just mean. It totally clashes with my eyes.”  


Wiping her eyes and standing up, Ladybug found that her earlier meltdown was dissipating. It was as if the laughter released the tension she was feeling before. “Oh, I so needed that. Thanks, Cat. I’m feeling much better.”  


“You’re welcome, My Lady.” He gave her a wry smile.  


Before she could relate both the smile and his words to Adrien, she focused her brain onto the situation. “So, you said you thought the akuma was in a hair ribbon.”  


“Yeah.”  


“Well, let’s see if my Lucky Charm gives me something like a giant pair of scissors.”  


"Sharp idea.”  
Ladybug decided that she could survive this fight by floating in an emotional limbo where half of her wanted to strangle her partner and the other half wanted to kiss him.

***

As it turned out, the girl who had been akumatized was the victim of a cruel joke by Chloe, who had poured a cup of food coloring on her head, dying her long, blonde hair green. But what had really set the girl off was that she had a job interview after school to work in a clothing store. If she had shown up with her hair that garish color, it would given her a bad impression.  


At least that was what Ladybug had gleaned from the girl while akumatized and afterward. Luckily, the Lucky Charm had returned the young woman’s hair back to its normal color.  


“Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, Ladybug,” the teenager rapidly cheered, squeezing the superheroin tightly. “I would thank you so much more, but I really have to go. If I run, I can still make that interview.”  


“Oh, sure. Good luck,” Ladybug said, waving.  


“Thank you again.” And, despite her enthusiasm for the job interview, she gave Cat Noir the same treatment.  


“Great job saving the day,” Cat Noir said once the teenager had run off. “Are you still feeling sick?” He lifted his hand to hold it against her forehead.  


Not sure she could prevent herself from acting like a total dork at his touch, she stepped away. “I’m feeling much better. I’m on the bend…I mean… on the mend. Oh, look at my earrings. I’m about to change back.”  


“Well, alright. Will you be able to meet tonight?”  


“Uh…tonight?”  


“Yeah. Remember, the Chief of Police wanted us to help him with creating official Akuma Attack Protocols. We agreed to meet tonight.”  


Ladybug did recall the conversation several days ago. She wanted to postpone it, but her sense of duty nagged her. While most of the damage that an akuma causes does get repaired by Ladybug’s Miraculous, many people often get hurt in the panic. These protocols were to help minimize injury to the civilians.  


But still, maybe it could be pushed one more day.  


As if he sensed her hesitation, Cat Noir spoke up. “Is it because of what I said last night? Because I was thinking about that. I’m really sorry for putting you on the spot. I didn’t know what kind of pressure I was putting on you by asking again, but now I think I understand.” His eyes strayed from her face to something behind her.  


Ladybug glanced back and saw Chloe fussing with her hair, shouting at a police officer to take her back home immediately. Guessing that Cat Noir was referring to the blonde, she wondered what had happened between Chloe and Adrien once they left school.  


“All I’m saying it, I now know what it’s like to tell someone what you told me. It wasn’t easy, was it?” Cat Noir asked, looking concerned.  


“No, it wasn’t,” Ladybug said, smiling. Why was she smiling? How could she not when Adrien was looking at her like that? “I-I mean, you were just following your heart. I can’t blame you for doing that.” She was feeling the blush creeping through her capillaries, heating her skin.  


“Well, I won’t do it again. This kitty knows not to push those boundaries again.”  


Ladybug groaned inwardly. Oh, the irony. Just when she wanted Cat Noir to keep pushing, he decides to back off.  


Her earrings beeped, and she knew she had seconds, not minutes, before turning back.  


“See you tonight.”  


“Yeah,” she said, lingering a second before running off.

***

At home, after greeting her parents, Marinette rushed up to her room, craving privacy to release the pent up emotions that needed to be let out like a sackful of wolverines. The minute she closed the hatch, shutting her off from the rest of the house, she felt her chest heaving. She wasn’t sure if she was sobbing, laughing, hyperventilating, freaking out, or a combination of all four.  


Tikki flew out of hiding, her voice that of comfort and reason. “Sit down, Marinette. Everything is going to be okay.”  
Marinette nodded and obeyed, her body trembling.  


“You did a good job. I know it was hard after the day you’ve had, but you kept things together. Wrap yourself up in a blanket,” Tikki continued to speak in a calm tone. She retrieved a paper bag, directing the teenager to breathe into it deeply. “Now, where is that secret stash of treats you keep? I know you hid it from me.”  


Between sobs, Marinette laughed. “Only because you have a bigger sweet tooth than I do. It’s in my underwear drawer.”  


Tikki retrieved the emergency stash of chocolate Marinette kept for particularly bad days before turning on some music. “Eat. You’re drained. I’ll get you some water.” Before Marinette could protest, Tikki rushed into the bathroom and brought out a small cup.  


“You don’t have to baby me,” Marinette said, wiping her eyes, surprised to feel tears. She hadn’t even noticed she had started crying.  


“Yes, I do,” Tikki insisted. “If it wasn’t for the circumstances, you would be talking to your mom, and she’d be doing all this for you. But you can’t, so I’ll do it.”  


That in itself calmed Marinette more than anything. For the next few hours, they listened to music together, only saying a few words. Tikki insisted that she not do any homework, not stress about anything, not even check her phone for messages.  


“Do you feel better?” Tikki asked once the last song on the playlist finished.  


“Yes, but I’m still…a mess. I can’t believe what I total dork I was. No, I can believe it. What I can’t believe is that I was a total dork as Ladybug.” Marinette moaned. “And I have to see him again tonight. There’s no way I can pretend that Cat Noir isn’t Adrien. I’m going to be tripping over my words and feet all night.”  


“Well, there’s one thing you can do,” Tikki mentioned. “But Master Fu won’t like it.”  


“Does it involve a time machine?”  


“No,” Tikki said with a chuckle. “You could tell Cat Noir who you are.”  


Marinette sat up, her eyes wide. “Do you…think I should?”  


“Master Fu gave specific instructions that your identity should remain secret. The rule wasn’t made lightly.” Tikki was solemn. “But the cat is out of the bag, so to speak.”  


Marinette smirked at the pun.  


“I’m not saying you should. I’m only saying that it is an option. The decision is yours.”  


The thought of telling Cat Noir—Adrien—that she was Ladybug, it felt as if a hand was closing over her airway. Her lungs threatened to hyperventilate again.  


“No, I can’t do that. If anything, it might make things worse,” Marinette decided. “No, I’m just going to have to get used to Adrien being Cat Noir. And that’s final.” She nodded as if it was set in stone.  


Tikki gave her a skeptical look before looking out the window. “Well, I hope it works, because you’re going to have to meet with him really soon.”  


With a squeal common from Marinette, the girl grabbed her phone, looked at the time ,and threw off the blanket she had been snuggling in. “Already. Oh, and I didn’t finish my homework.”  


“Worry about that later. Let’s get going,” Tikki ushered.  


In a flash, Ladybug stood in the bedroom and climbed out the ceiling hatch. It must have been destined that her parents chose this exact building for their bakery and home because it would have been difficult for her to continue her nighttime activities without the roof access.  


Tonight, she and Cat Noir had chosen a rooftop near the Champs-Élysées, mainly since it was well lit but there was also a small café near that sold them discount coffees and hot chocolates. It was their favorite spots to plan and chat.  


Cat Noir was already there, and at the sound of her yo-yo, he turned to watch her. Seeing his green eyes, attentive and bright, Ladybug miscalculated her landing and slammed into a chimney.  


“Ladybug!”  


“It’s alright. I’m okay,” she announced, holding her nose in case it was bleeding. She tried very, very hard not to think of Adrien. She laughed off her mistake.  


“Well, that was graceful,” Cat Noir teased. “If I’d have known you needed help, I’d have whiskered you off your feet.”  


The pun helped. That pun was the single worst one he had ever said. And she told him so, only stuttering once or twice.  


“Yeah, it really was claw-ful,” Cat Noir said, holding up his hand. “Can’t skin a cat for trying.”  


Nope. Still awful. Nobody who said such cheezy, awful puns could possibly be a super-hot model.  


“Shall we get started,” Ladybug said, ready to get to work.  


“Yes. I swung by the police station before coming here. The Chief of Police gave me their current policies during these kinds of emergencies as well as a few ideas they had.” He started spreading the papers out on the ground, kneeling so he could work with them. “I’m not sure how we can improve them. I mean, we may be superheroes, but we aren’t trained in this area.”  


“But you’re so smart, you’ll figure something out,” Ladybug said, remembering how creative of a problem solver Adrien was.  


“You mean we’ll figure something out. I can’t do this without you,” Cat Noir added.  


Ladybug turned her back to her partner, feeling the intense redness spreading again.  


_Keep it together, Ladybug. Don’t think of him as Adrien. It’s just Cat Noir. Cat Noir.  
_

“You won’t be able to see things from up there. Come on down.” Cat Noir patted the place next to him from where he sat cross-legged.  


“Uh…I can actually see just fine.”  


“My Lady, I’m the one with night vision. We can’t do this right unless you can see everything.”  


Ladybug quickly sat down, falling hard on her butt as she lost her balance on the way down. She grinned so she wouldn’t groan.  


“I think we can improve this evacuation policy. They haven’t updated it for decades since they’ve never had to evacuate the entire city. Not that I think they’ll have to during an akuma attack, but you never know with Hawkmoth. I’d rather be safe than sorry.”  


Smiling, Ladybug compared this moment to working with Adrien on the science paper. The way he concentrated on a problem, how his eyes moved rapidly over the information, his intensity was inspiring. She could watch him all day.  


“What do you think, Ladybug?”  


“Wh-what do I think? Uh…I-I’m not sure.”  


To make up for her lapse in attention, she reached for a piece of paper just for something to do. At the same time, Cat Noir reached for it. When his hand enclosed over hers, she completely lost it, squealing and reeling backward so she landed on her back, legs in the air.  


“Are you okay?”  


“Yeah, fine, fine. Nothing broken.”  


“No, I mean, is something going on? You’re not acting like yourself.”  


“Myself? Ha ha. Why would I not act like myself? That’s silly.”  


Cat Noir frowned and looked away. “Do you really dislike me that much?”  


“What? No, I don’t dislike you.” Ladybug wanted to shout at him how much she liked him.  


Rubbing his face then ruffling his hair, he sighed. “I understand that I may have been a bit pushy, that sometimes my jokes can be…terrible, but I thought that we…could still be friends.”  


“We can. We are. I’m just…off my game.” But she didn’t want to be friends. Not_ just _friends, but something more. And at that moment, she realized that whatever calm composure she was feigning was quickly unraveling.  


“Then what is it? Why does it feel like you’d rather be anywhere but with me right now?” Cat Noir demanded, his eyes so penetrating they could bore through steel.  


And that snapped the final thread of Ladybug’s strength.  


“I can’t do this anymore,” she said, her voice thick in her throat. “I can’t.”  


“What can’t you do? Be around me?”  


“No. Yes. I don’t know.” Ladybug could feel the tears coming. Cat Noir was right. She would rather be anywhere but right there where he could see her bawling like a baby. She tried to stand up, but Cat Noir had a grip on her wrist. “Please, let me go.”  


“No. I want to know what’s going on. You’re so different today, Ladybug, and I want to know why.” His voice was firm and his eyes were imploring. “What is going on with you? What can’t you do anymore? Does it have to do with being Ladybug? Are you—“  


“I know who you are!” she blurted out because she couldn’t stand him saying anymore. His words were confusing the situation, and she had to say the first thing that came to her mind. “I know!”  


If Cat Noir looked more surprised than he did at that moment, his cat ears would have stood up straight. “What? You know…”  


“Your identity,” Ladybug finished, feeling guilty. “I found out by accident. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to, but I did.” The pressure on her wrist disappeared, but she no longer had the inclination to run. Instead, she collapsed onto her knees, hands braced against her thighs.  


“How did you find out?”  


“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you that.”  


“Why?”  


“Because then you’ll know…And I’m sorry about that, too. I know it’s not fair, but I can’t. I just can’t.”  


Silence passed between them. The sounds of the people on the streets and the cars traveling around the monument filled their ears.  


“Then…” Cat Noir started, “it’s not Cat Noir you dislike, it’s…me.” It was as if he couldn’t bring himself to say his own name.  


The thought that Adrien would think Ladybug didn’t like him broke something inside Marinette. It went past the red and black suit, past her alter-ego and broke something loose inside her core. And before she could stop the words, they spilled out. “I’m in love with you, Adrien.”  


Green eyes widened, and Ladybug could barely hear him exhale in surprise. And before he could recover from this stunning news, she had more she needed to say while she still had the bravery to do so.  


“Which is why I don’t know if I can be Ladybug anymore around you. Because I know you love Ladybug, but the me that I am every day, that girl, she isn’t like Ladybug. I’m not the kind of person you would notice. I’m not the kind of girl someone as handsome, as successful, as…perfect as you would fall for. I cannot compete with Ladybug.”  


Coming awake, Cat Noir jumped forward—a feat since he was on his knees—grabbing her hand. “But you_ are_ Ladybug.”  


“No, I’m not,” she cried, feeling the tears slide down her mask, dripping down her face. “Ladybug is just a mask I wear, a persona I put on because that’s what the city needs. It’s not the real me, the me I am at home, at school, with my friends. I’m not miraculous. I’m ordinary and, sometimes, the opposite of Ladybug. Even if you got to know the real me, you wouldn’t see me the way you look at Ladybug.”  


“That’s not true. Let me get to know you, the real you,” Cat Noir implored, his hands reaching out, not knowing to touch her shoulders or her hands. He seemed flummoxed, confused as to what to do in this situation. “Please, let me know who you are. I know that you’re wrong. You aren’t ordinary.”  


Ladybug shook her head. “No. Even if I took off this mask, all you would see is Ladybug. And that’s not what I want.”  


Before Cat Noir could touch her, because she knew that if he did, she would stay with him, she ran.


	5. Adrien Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place after Chapter 3. In this chapter, Adrien knows Marinette is Ladybug (She doesn't know he's Cat Noir. )

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm very sorry that there was such a large gap between the last chapter and this one. It has been one long roller coaster for me. First off, there was the holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years. I had a ton of family stuff to do, a lot of traveling, plus my husband is a teacher, and with him and my son out of school for a few weeks, I didn't have a lot of time for fanfiction writing. Then a ton of stuff dumped on me. I had a short story due to an anthology. Then a writer's convention contacted me about setting up a table in their vendor's room, so I had to make a ton of crafts to sell as well as get a Novella I'd written ready to publish as well as send a comic I wrote (and a friend drew) to be printed. On top of that, at the convention, I got the flu, then I got a cold, and now I'm dealing with the nation's panic of the Corona Virus (which I don't have.)
> 
> So...I feel justified in not posting for a long time. However, since leaving my house is the last thing the government wants me to do (lol, I didn't want to leave anyway), I'm hoping to get back into posting weekly.
> 
> I also apologize for the quality of this chapter. It's not my best, especially following that last one. I intended to make this one longer, I didn't get to the point I wanted to, but I didn't want to make you wait longer, so here it is. I hope to be able to submit next week, too. Thank you everyone for reading.

Chloe’s screams were like a golden thread leading Cat Noir to the akumatized villain. Not to mention, there was a path of pedestrians either laughing or shouting about frizzy hair dyed unnatural colors. Apparently one of the akuma’s powers was to make everyone look like a throw-back from the 80s.

“Wow, this is a hair-raising day. Literally,” Cat Noir said to himself. After realizing that there was nobody to laugh at his joke—or roll their eyes—he berated himself for wasting a good line. Would Marinette think it was funny?

_I mean—Ladybug._

He couldn’t mix their names up. He couldn’t reveal to Ladybug that he knew her secret identity, at least, not until he had a plan. Not until he found out whom Marinette had a crush on, a secret that Chloe knew the answer to.

The impatient side of Cat Noir wanted to charge into this fight, wrestle Chloe away from Hawk Moth’s latest victim, and demand the information right there and then, regardless of exposing his own identity. Yet, did he really want to know who she liked? Did it matter? What could he do about it?

“Hello, Cat? Earth to Cat Noir.”

Turning his head, Cat Noir saw Ladybug running alongside him, giving him a worried frown.

“Oh, hey Ladybug.”

“About time. I’ve called your name five times. Where’s your head?”

“Thinking of you, as always, M’Lady,” he said, his mouth automatically flirting. At least some things didn’t change.

Ladybug shook her head. “Well, I need you to focus on the akuma. Do you happen to know what kind of object it is in?”

Ashamed that he hadn’t been doing his job, Cat Noir shrugged. “I haven’t been able to get a good look at her. How about you?”

“I just got here,” Ladybug replied. “We need to assess the situation, find out where the akuma is, and save Chloe…again.” Her lips were pursed together in a pout.

_That now makes sense,_ Cat Noir thought. _I always thought it was uncharacteristic of Ladybug to dislike Chloe, her number one fan, but now…_

“How about I get ahead of them and cause a distraction, then you can snatch Chloe away?” Cat Noir suggested.

Ladybug nodded, and they broke away, Cat Noir making vast leaps from one roof to another, sidling alongside the villain before dashing out in front of her.

The long, green tendrils of the girl’s hair stopped their spidery crawling, surprised by the appearance of the black-clad superhero.

“Cat Noir, just who I wanted to see,” the villain hissed. She held out a hand. “Give me your ring, or Chloe falls to her death.”

Chloe screamed, wriggling to free herself from the animated hair.

Beyond the garish costume and the twisted face, there was a teenage girl who was being manipulated by Hawkmoth’s powers. Cat Noir could see a remnant of that girl, someone who normally wouldn’t harm anyone. He held up his hands, the international sign of “I’m not going to harm you.”

“I’ve seen some pretty big hairballs,” Cat Noir said, his tone light. “But I think that one on top of your head really takes the cake.”

Just as he expected, the akumatized girl growled angrily. “Don’t you dare mock me.”

“Mock you? Perish the thought. I was only making a keen observation,” he said, posing in a characteristic jester stance. “What name did Hawkmoth give you? Bad Hair Day? The Barber? Oh, how about To Dye For?”

A smirk crossed the girl’s purple lips. “I’m called Hair Raiser.”

Cat Noir sighed. “Man, I should have used that joke earlier. Now if I say it, I’ll just be a copycat. By the way, where did you get your hair dye? A clown school?”

As fast as a snake’s strike, a tendril of Hair Raiser’s hair shot out, aiming for Cat Noir’s head. If it wasn’t for his feline instincts, complimentary of Plagg, he might have been knocked unconscious.

As Cat Noir flipped, skittered and dashed, avoiding the hair attacks, he watched as Ladybug sneaked closer from behind. With small gestures that they had practiced together, he knew exactly when to get the akumatized villain the most riled up to allow Ladybug the opportunity to jump in and snatch away Chloe. While it may have been a great plan in foresight, it wasn’t foolproof.

“Ladybug!” Hair Raiser shouted, but too late.

Chloe was free, her thin-frame pulled out of the hair tendril. “Oh, thank you Ladybug! I knew you’d come for me,” the teenager girl said, hugging the heroin so tightly that it prevented Ladybug from swinging on her yo-yo correctly.

Hair Raiser, angry that her prey had been snatched away, shot out her hands as if to push someone hard, sparks flying from her fingertips.

Cat Noir saw this and moved without thinking, jumping in to protect the two girls. It was as if someone had rubbed their shoes against a carpet and shocked him with static electricity, only ten times worse. And with it being electricity, it hit all three of them, so he jumping in as a human shield didn’t help.

The three of them screamed with the pain that happened in less than a second. Ladybug managed to get her and Chloe to the nearest rooftop before collapsing onto one knee.

“Are you two okay?” Cat Noir tried to say, but it came out as, “Ah oo t’ kay?” His mind felt fuzzy, his tongue was numb and he was shaking but only on the inside. He could smell something that was mixed with ozone and burnt hair.

“Wha?” Ladybug replied, looking just as shocked and confused as he did.

With his head still not working as it should, Cat Noir did the only first thing that came to mind: he grabbed Ladybug and Chloe’s hands and marched—more like led in a wobbly way—to a hatch in the roof. The three of them had to get away until they could recover from the shock. Luckily they opened the hatch and climbed through before Hair Raiser found them. In the condition they were in, she could have easily taken their Miraculouses without a fight.

The hatch had led to a girl’s bedroom, the bed raised so that it was close to the roof access. The room looked vaguely familiar. The three sat there, waiting for the effects of the electricity to wear off.

Once he was sure his tongue was working, Cat Noir said, “Now I know why Hawkmoth called her Hair Raiser.” He felt around his head, noting how his hair now added a few inches to his height. He looked to Ladybug, wanting to see how her hair had puffed out, but didn’t expect it to be a bright purple instead of blue-black. He started laughing so hard, he fell off the bed.

“I think the shock broke your little kitty mind,” Ladybug told him, frowning.

“Look at your hair!” he said, pointing.

As if she knew exactly where it was, Ladybug turned to a mirror and gasped. “It-it-it…Oh, no!” She turned in a circle, looking more horrified by her surroundings than what her hair looked like. “We need to get out of here. Now!”

At that, Chloe seemed to come to life, gazing around their environment. She still looked dazed from the electrical shock. “Where are we? Ugh, this room is a fashion Nope-Zone.”

Ladybug issued out a soft, smoldering growl. “Whoever’s bedroom this is, it’s not polite to criticize their excellent taste. After all, we’re trespassing in this wonderful girl’s room so we won’t get electrocuted.”

Cat Noir took a better look around the room. It looked even more familiar, but where had he seen it before. Then he found the family photos. “Crap!” he shouted.

Ladybug sprang into an action pose, looking for danger. “What is it?”

“Uh… I just saw the color of my hair,” Cat Noir quickly lied. “Totally clashes with my ensemble.” Figuring that Ladybug didn’t want Chloe to know whose room this was either, he slowly blocked the blonde girl’s view of the pictures of Marinette’s family.

Ladybug frowned, hands on her hips. “This isn’t the time to goof around. I’m going to check to see if Hair Raiser is gone.” She climbed onto the bed, poking her head out of the roof access.

At this time, Chloe had jumped off the bed and was looking around the room. “This room is so freakin’ small. How do people live in such a tiny place?” she sneered.

Shame spread through Cat Noir’s chest. Marinette’s room was smaller than his bathroom. But he had often envied his friends’ smaller, cozier homes. They were warmer and friendlier than his father’s mansion.

He wanted to defend Marinette’s accommodations, but he knew Chloe enough to predict that if he did, she’d be more determined to look for something to make fun of. Instead, he grabbed a pillow and pushed it into Chloe’s face.

“Hey, what gives? Are you trying to smother me?!” she shouted at him.

“You’ve just gone through a huge shock, miss,” Cat Noir ad libbed. “I’ve heard that a pillow can calm you down and prevent the major side-effects of electrocution; you know: hair loss, acne, bloating.”

Chloe pressed her face into the pillow harder as if it were a lifeline.

“What is she doing?” Ladybug’s face was seen hanging down from the roof access.

Cat Noir shrugged, not wanting to explain things. He wasn’t sure if he could do it without giving up someone’s secret. “Is the coast clear?” he asked.

“Yeah. No sign of Hair Raiser. Now get Chloe and let’s go.”

Cat Noir grabbed Chloe around the waist and hoisted her back onto Marientte’s bed.

“Why are we going back onto the roof?” Chloe protested, still clutching the pillow. “Can’t we just go down and out the front door?”

“Ah…er…um…” Ladybug faltered.

Perhaps it was because he was so used to lying today, but Cat Noir jumped in. “We don’t know if Hair Raiser is watching the front door. If she’s waiting for us, then we’ll be sitting ducks. Better to be on the high ground.”

“Yeah, this way is so much safer,” Ladybug added, her voice filled with relief.

As she helped Chloe up through the roof access, Cat Noir tugged on the pillow. “You should leave this here. It belongs to someone else.”

Chloe clutched at the pillow, her face showing that she’d say some very nasty things if someone took that pillow away from her.

“Oh, I’m sure whoever owns that beautiful bedroom that they won’t mind if you take that pillow,” Ladybug added. “She seems like the type who has a heart of gold and would be willing to give you that pillow and never, never, ever give it back.”

Chloe relaxed, snuggling into the pillow. She even smiled a bit, a true, genuine smile.

“Yeah, by the look of the bedroom, she does seem the type to put others before herself. I could tell that she’s a wonderful person.” He didn’t look pointedly at Ladybug, only a glance from the corner of his eye, but Cat Noir saw Ladybug blush. He couldn’t remember ever getting that reaction from Ladybug before.

“I’ll take Chloe far away, some place she’ll be safe,” Ladybug announced, holding onto Chloe. “Could you find Hair Raiser and then call me?”

_Call me?_ her voice repeated in his head. If only she had said that in a different context.

“Sure thing, bugaboo,” he replied, barely missing a beat. At least it was easy for him to remain in the role of Cat Noir, cureless flirt. And he had the full intention to do as she asked, but once her swinging form was out of sight behind taller buildings, a naughty thought popped into his mind.

What if he took a quick peak into Marinette’s room? Not that he would dig around in her diary or personal items, but maybe she left some sort of clue out in the open as to whom she had a crush on. Perhaps a love letter? Or a photo? Or his name drawn all over her notebook with hearts…?

He hit his palm against his forehead. Why was he imaging such things? Did he want his heart broken even more by finding evidence of Marinette’s love life?

“Yes, I do,” he said to no one before dropping down the roof access into Marinette’s room. He needed to see it for himself for it to be real; he needed to know the name of this boy?

As quiet as a cat, he slowly circled the room for anything to satisfy his curiosity. He looked around the desk, but it was neat and organized, no notebooks open for him to read. He recognized the box that held her diary because of that time Sabrina stole it. The secret was sure to be in there, but that would be worse than looking at her texts. The rest of the room was also meticulously clean, hardly anything out of place save for a table where a small sewing machine sat with the beginnings of a dress being made. Organized chaos as he had heard artists call their messes when creating.

A second look around also brought no clues, although he lingered at a corkboard where Marinette had pinned dozens of photos, most of them pictures cut from fashion magazines featuring Adrien wearing original Gabriel Agreste designs. He knew Marinette was a fan of his father’s work so she must keep all these photos to inspire her to create her wonderful drawings of clothes.

However, they also might be a way to hide a photo underneath them.

Careful not to crease any of the photos, Cat Noir lifted all of them up, hoping to catch a glimpse of the boy who captured Marinette’s heart. Disappointed, he glared at the multiple images of his face looking back at him smugly.

“Who is it?” he asked those faces, frowning. Too bad his imagine couldn’t answer.

That’s when his baton started to ring.

“Cat Noir, have you found her yet?” Ladybug’s voice came through the receiver.

Gritting his teeth in shame, Cat Noir replied, “Uh…no. Haven’t seen a…hair of her.” He smiled when Ladybug sighed at his joke.

“Well, I’ve hidden Chloe away until this is all over. Where are you and I’ll help with the search.”

He wondered what her face would be like if he told her the truth. Instead, he told her to meet him at a chosen location not far from the Dupain-Cheng bakery. It wouldn’t take him more than a minute or two to get there. And Ladybug would never know that he was spying on her.

At their meeting point, they could hear a wave of screams a few blocks away, a clear sign where to find the akuma.

“Let’s go,” Cat Noir shouted, ready to jump into battle

“Not yet,” Ladybug stopped him with her words. “I really really don’t want to be shocked again.”

“Ditto.”

“So, let’s see if my Miraculous can give us something to protect us and get the akuma. Lucky Charm!”

Magically, from the yo-yo, a twenty pound bag of flour appeared and dropped heavily into Ladybug’s awaiting arms. The young woman grunted at the sudden weight.

“Flour? I suppose you could bake Hair Raiser something,” Cat Noir quipped. A shot of fear raced through his chest. Would she take that as a hint he knew about her secret? In a panic, he tried to cover his tracks. “I-I think baking her something awful might make her give up. I’m guessing you are a terrible cook.”

Ladybug gave him a strange look, aghast mixed with “What is wrong with you, Cat Noir?” She snorted. “As it so happens, I’m a wonderful cook.”

Cat Noir smiled, remembering the macaroons she once made. “Well, you’ll have to convince me with actual proof. Perhaps you should invite me over for dinner some time.”

She nudged him away. “Enough of your flirting. We need to figure out what to do with this flour.” Her eyes darted here and there as she looked for anything else to help with a plan. Then her eyes landed on something on the street. “Ah…Do you remember doing papier-mache as a kid?”

Eyeing the fire hydrant on the street corner, Cat Noir smiled. “Oh, I love arts and crafts.”

It didn’t take long for the pair to lure Hair Raiser closer to the hydrant. Cat Noir used his Cataclysm to destroy the hydrant, spraying the street, both heroes and the akumatized girl. Before they could be shocked again—covered in water as they were, it would have been worse a second time—Ladybug dumped the entire contents of the flour bag over Hair Raiser’s head, creating a thick ooze. With the heat of the sun, the ooze dried and hardened, stopping the magical tendrils of hair. Because the akumatized teen couldn’t move, she was unable to create more static electricity, and was quite powerless when Ladybug snatched up her hair ribbon and broke it apart, releasing the dark butterfly within.

Once the girl was back to normal, as well as everything else in Paris that had been damaged by the rampaging villain, Cat Noir and Ladybug gleaned why she had been vulnerable to the akuma’s influence.

“And then Chloe dumped some sort of dye on my head, turning my hair green,” the girl said, looking both sad and ashamed.

Ladybug smiled. “It’s not your fault. And besides, your hair looks great now.”

The girl pulled at her bangs and smiled. “Oh, thank you Ladybug. If I hurry, I can still make it to my job interview,” she said, throwing her arms around the spotted super heroin. She repeated the process with Cat Noir before jogging off.

A familiar beeping caused Cat Noir to look down at his ring. Only two pads left. “I gotta go, Bugaboo. We did great together.”

“Uh, Cat,” Ladybug called out, waving him to a corner away from the prying ears of the public.

Not that Cat Noir would complain about following Ladybug to somewhere private, but they were really close to transforming.

“What’s up, M’ Lady?”

“I just wanted to know if we’re still okay. You know, because of last night.” Her eyes were large with concern. “You’ve been acting really weird today.”

“Oh, that. Yeah, we’re okay. I’m trying to…move on,” he said, swallowing his guilt. How could he be moving on if he was secretly trying to find out who her crush is? His actions weren’t those of one ready to give up but that of a jealous stalker. “I’ve just been a little distracted. There’s been…something on my mind.”

Ladybug smiled, still looking worried. “I just don’t want this to affect our partnership. You’re really important to me, you know.”

He smiled back. “I know.”

At that moment, both of their Miraculouses beeped in sync. They gave each other the same look and took off in opposite directions.

He was too far away from the hotel, so he found a corner where he could transform before slipping into a crowd passing by, blending in. Once he had Plagg safe in his jacket pocket with his emergency stash of Camembert, Adrien took off running toward the Bourgeois Hotel.

At the front desk, he asked if Chloe had returned yet.

“Oh, yes, Monsieur. In fact, she has been frantically looking for you. I’ll call her and tell her that you are safe. Will you be staying?”

He was tempted to say no; Chloe post-akuma attack was worse than Chloe not getting her way. But there was Marinette’s secret he had to get out of her. “Yeah, I’ll go up and check on her.”

The man at the front desk looked relieved, dialing the phone already.

After riding up to Chloe’s floor, Adrien didn’t even make it out of the elevator doors before his friend rammed into him, hugging him and peppering his cheeks with kisses. “Jeez, Chloe, it’s as if you’ve never been captured by an akuma before.”

“But this time, it was like my life flashed before my eyes. With my hair like that, I was sure I was going to die of humiliation. I just hope that nobody took a photo. Oh, I still may die of fright remembering that horrible ordeal.”

All through this, Adrien managed to get Chloe out of the elevators before the doors closed and sent them to another floor. They returned to the sitting room, broken wall intact once again thanks to Ladybug’s magic. Even their homework had been returned to the table that, if memory served him, had been embedded in the floor due to the blast.

“What happened to you, Adrien? When I got back, I couldn’t find you at all. I worried that something had happened to you,” Chloe demanded, her tone a mixture of bullying and concern.

“When you were taken, I ran out of the hotel to go look for help,” Adrien replied. “I saw how Ladybug rescued you on the Internet, so I came back.”

Chloe smiled, relaxing in her chair. “I bet you were awfully jealous that I spent all that time with Ladybug,” she said, back to her old self. “We’re practically BFFs since we’re together so often.”

Adrien laughed softly, humoring the blonde. “I guess, although I think I’d prefer to be with Ladybug in a different scenario.”

Chloe looked at her nails. “I didn’t think about it at the time, but I could put in a good word for you. I’m sure I could set you two up.”

There was so much wrong with that, Adrien didn’t know where to start. Instead, he changed the subject in the direction he wanted it. “Hey, speaking of crushes, remember what we were talking about before that akuma attacked?”

Chloe tapped her bottom lip with a perfect nail, looking up at the ceiling. Then she frowned. “Oh, that. Wasn’t it Marinette’s crush? Blah. That was so last minute ago.”

She was bored. Chloe was stubborn when she was bored.

Then pure inspiration hit Adrien, a way that may pry loose Chloe’s tongue.

“How about we make it a game?” Adrien suggested, a twinkle in his eye. “How about you give me a hint? And if I guess correctly, you’ll tell me.”

Chloe’s smile slid onto her face like a lazy snake. “Okay.” She set about tapping her nail against her lip again in thought. “Okay, I got one. You know that thing that Marinette does when she’s nervous?”

Adrien nodded. “Yeah, she has that stutter.” He worried that Chloe would start making fun of Marinette right there.

Chloe chuckled. “Yeah, and she trips over things, and drops things and all that stuff. As you know, she and I have been in the same class since Kindergarten. For real. Anyway, the first ever day of school, she could hardly speak because of her stutter, but it eventually went away except when she was really nervous. She gets nervous meeting new teachers or when she’s in trouble or even when she’s talking to cute boys. I don’t know how she can stand it; it’s just awful.”

Adrien listened to Chloe, expecting an easy clue to Marinette’s crush, but this wasn’t the obvious hint he had hoped for. “And what does that have to do with Marinette’s crush?” he asked impatiently.

“Haven’t you noticed that there’s someone Marinette is especially clumsy around, someone that has her tripping over words like a poodle in pumps?” Chloe asked with one raised eyebrow. “That’s your guy.”

Adrien hadn’t realized he was squeezing his fists hard until then; he forced them to relax, his joints stiff from holding his muscles taut for so long. “That’s it! That’s all you’re giving me.”

Chloe patted his knee. “Adrien, I know you’re, like, super smart, but sometimes you’re so clueless.”


	6. Marinette Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Once again, we're back to Marinette's story (remember, Adrien doesn't know she is Ladybug, but she knows he is Cat Noir). Ladybug had just confessed her feelings to Cat Noir/Adrien and ran away. Let's see what happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please also be sensitive to the fact that this takes place in the second season and I haven't seen anything in the third and beyond.
> 
> (Note: Before, I said I would be posting on Sunday. I will be rescinding this because it's not practical anymore for me. I'll be posting when I finish a chapter. This story has been on hiatus for a while because of my health, but--Thankfully--my doctor has found a probable reason. Let's hope it works.)

Revealed (And Switched)

Chapter 6: Marinette Part 3

She had never been good at running away, even as Marinette. She knew from past confrontations that eventually she would have to face her problems. She had done so with Chloe. She had done so with her responsibility with Hawkmoth. And every time she had stood up to a bully, to another villain, her confidence grew.

But she ran from Cat Noir, from Adrien. She had dumped everything she was feeling into his lap and fled before he could say anything else to her. Why did this have to happen? Why couldn’t she have remained oblivious to Cat Noir’s secret?

As she stepped back into her room through the roof access hatch, she slumped onto her bed, staying as Ladybug. She wasn’t ready to release Tikki; she just wanted to be alone, to allow these tears to dry up completely, let her emotions run wild for a time. There would be time to talk this over with the Kwami, to listen to Tikki’s wise advice. But for now, she was going to just wallow in self-pity, replaying everything over and over again in her mind.

Did she really say all those things? Did she really just tell Adrien that she loved him? After all these months of dreaming about it, this wasn’t exactly what she expected.

And what about the part where she said she couldn’t be Ladybug anymore. She only meant at that particular moment. Would Adrien think she meant forever? What was he thinking right this moment?

Ladybug had the full intention to talk things over with Tikki, to clear the air, make a plan, and also be a responsible teenager and do her homework, but with her eyes burning, her body, mind and soul so tired, that couldn’t resist shutting her eyes.

***

“Marinette, are you up yet?”

Her mother’s voice gently pulled her away from Slumberland. Feeling groggy and dry, her eyes full of goop, Marinette sat up and rubbed her face. But when she noticed the bright red colors with black dots, she jumped to her feet, hitting her head against the ceiling.

“Oh no. I fell asleep,” she cried out.

Before her parents could come upstairs and see her, she quickly said, “Spots off,” releasing Tikki. The little Kwami floated like a feather down into Marinette’s hands, yawning, her eyes barely open.

“Oh, no. Are you okay, Tikki?”

“I’m fine,” Tikki said, yawning again. “Merging with you for that long just makes me really sleepy.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep as Ladybug. I really wanted to talk to you about last night.”

“It’s okay. We’ll talk later.” Tikki’s head was bobbing up and down as she fought sleep. “I’ll just nap while you’re at school.”

“You rest,” Marinette said, smiling and kissing the Kwami’s forehead.

Already, Tikki was fast asleep.

Marinette put her partner in her purse before heading downstairs for breakfast, her arms laden with unfinished schoolwork. She tried not to think about last night, because when she did, a pit the size of one of her Dad’s commissioned Eiffel Tower cakes rose up in her stomach.

Not that Marinette had time in the morning to think about Cat Noir and what she told him last night. Her thoughts were mostly on getting her homework done, including the new poems Mrs. Bustier assigned. Thankfully, the science paper, which she had been working with Adrien on and was due today, had been finished yesterday before this whole debacle started.

Racing to school with a book open to read over her assigned history chapter at crosswalks, Marinette barely made it on time. The bell had just rung, and Mrs. Bustier was telling everyone to take their seats. As she walked to her seat, she managed to take a peek at Adrien. His eyes were dark-rimmed as if he hadn’t slept well. She groaned as she sat, not knowing what she was going to say to him, to Cat Noir.

What if an akuma attacked? She would have to talk to him then. What would she say?

She could tell him her secret identity. That would be an easy solution. She began to daydream about that scenario, thinking of how his face would change to surprise then love at the sight of her, Marinette.

_Oh, I had hoped it would be you,_ Adrien would say, grabbing her hand and kissing it. _My Lady._

Marinette struggled not to giggle, her heart fluttering at merely the thought of Adrien being romantic with her. She focused on the teacher’s lesson for a while, pushing aside her inner thoughts. It would do her no good if she flunked her classes thinking of Adrien.

But worries and thoughts kept pushing out Mrs. Bustier’s voice. How could she mull over rhythm and rhymes when she was a few words away from having a happily ever after with Adrien?

But it wouldn’t be happily ever after. There was that chance that his heart would falter if he knew Ladybug was really a klutzy, stuttering girl. Would he only like Marinette just because she was Ladybug?

There were just too many things that could go wrong with revealing her identity to Adrien, so many ways for him to hurt her because Ladybug and Marinette were just too different. It was why her identity was so good, because nobody would assume they were the same person.

When it came down to it, she was absolutely sure that if she were to tell Adrien, he would be disappointed.

***

Marinette dragged her way through school. For the second day in a row, she found it difficult to concentrate on any scholar subject. With Adrien right in front of her, she couldn’t help but dwell on him and try to guess what he was thinking, all the while dreading seeing Cat Noir again.

It was a relief when the final bell rang and she could leave. She intended to get away as soon as possible, but Nino jumped in front of her right before she could escape.

“Yo, Marinette. I’ve been totally trying to get your attention all day, but it seems your head is in the clouds,” the boy joked.

“Uh…yeah. I’m sorry. I just have so much on my mind.”

“We’re supposed to get together and work on our poetry. I’m your partner if Alya didn’t mention it.”

“Oh, I think she did,” Marinette replied, vaguely remembering the conversation. “We should get together, maybe tomorrow after school.”

“Whoa, you really are out of it. Tomorrow is Saturday.”

Marinette almost collapsed. “Oh, thank goodness,” she sighed. She just needed to get home and she’d have the whole weekend to organize her feelings and get her life straightened out. Maybe Hawkmoth was on vacation at the moment, if she were lucky.

“We should still get together soon. I’m needed some help with some of my poems,” Nino explained.

“Oh, right. Maybe Sunday. Tomorrow…is…” _A day I want to be completely and utterly alone._

“Gotcha,” Nino said, not needing further explanation. “How about if I invite Alya and her partner. We could make it a group session.”

“I don’t know. Alya wanted me to make sure you’re writing her lovey-dovey poems for her,” Marinette teased, feeling more like herself for the first time all day.

Nino blushed and laughed. “It’ll be fine. Ivan will probably be in the same fix.”

Marinette wondered if Adrien was writing more poems for Ladybug. She began blushing as well, hers more evident on her pale cheeks. “Just text me the time and place, and I’ll be there,” she called out as she ran off.

Jogging almost the entire way, Marinette made it back without incident. She had planned on escaping to her room to talk to Tikki—who must be done with her nap by now—but her parents needed her to help them in the bakery. While it wasn’t what she wanted to do, she soon found that talking to customers kept her mind off of her anxiety and calmed her. The shop was so busy, she worked until closing time. Friday nights were always crowded, mostly from couples coming in for dessert after dining out. Usually, her family didn’t eat dinner until late.

Before she went up to her room, her parents invited her to watch TV with them. She was tempted to stay; it would procrastinate thinking about her issues and talking with Tikki, which could be either good or bad. In the end, she refused.

Up in her room, she found Tikki munching on some cookies and reading a book.

“I’m glad to see you up,” Marinette said as she closed the hatch in the floor. “You worried me.”

“It’s very tiring being merged with you,” Tikki informed her. “Even though you didn’t use your Lucky Charm, it took a lot out of me being Ladybug all night, but not the same as usual. The other times, eating replenishes my energy, but this time, all I needed was sleep.”

“And you’ve recovered?”

“Yes, but please, let’s not do that again…at least, unless you really, really, really need to.”

“Okay. Again, I’m sorry. I’ll not do it again,” Marinette promised. “Now…what do you think about…last night?”

Tikki looked concerned, pausing before answering. “I think it was the right decision to tell Cat Noir that you know his secret,” she said slowly.

“But…” Marinette began when Tikki didn’t continue, her tone asking for more information.

“You were already emotionally taut at the moment, so it probably wasn’t the best time to say it. What happened last night, it isn’t your fault, and you shouldn’t feel guilty for finding out about the truth or for keeping your identity a secret as well,” Tikki went on.

Somehow, that made Marinette feel better. She hadn’t realized that guilt was part of the equation. It wasn’t fair to Cat Noir to be in that kind of situation, but Marinette hoped that if the roles were reversed, she would be understanding about being kept in the dark. Was Adrien that forgiving?

“However, it isn’t fair to Adrien that you ran off,” Tikki said gently. “He’s probably fretting right now if he’ll ever see you again. You shouldn’t leave him worrying.”

“Right,” Marinette said, breathing evenly. “I need to make a plan. I need to anticipate everything he’ll ask me, everything he’ll say. I need to practice my responses. I need to—“

“Marinette, you know what happens when you plan something,” Tikki said, looking a complex mixture of stern and entertained. “Something goes wrong and you end up sticking to the plan and say or do the wrong thing. Sometimes it’s best to go in without a plan.”

Marinette felt a chill run through her spine. Tears threaten to spill again. “But what if I mess it up? This isn’t just giving him a note or leaving a message on his phone. I just confessed my love for him.” She was already feeling week in the knees.

“Then the hardest part is already over, isn’t it?” Tikki said with a smile. “Now you need to go to him.”

“Go to him? Now?” Marinette asked, feeling afraid. She was going to argue that she didn’t know where Cat Noir was, but that was incorrect. She had Adrien’s schedule memorized. She only had to know the time, and she could find him.

“Now,” Tikki insisted, her dark blue eyes full of love and support.

Marinette hugged the tiny creature to her face. “Okay. I’ll go.”

***

Ladybug stood on the gates surrounding the Agreste mansion. It was late, the sun in the last minutes of its setting. Most of the mansion was dark, only a few lights on. One was in Adrien’s room, which was in the back. She threw her yo-yo, which wound around one of the chimney flues, and pulled herself toward the building, swinging to the back. She stopped at the corner of the large set of windows that looked into Adrien’s room.

When she set eyes on Adrien’s home, back during Volpina’s transformation, she hadn’t known it was his bedroom until she saw the bed. The place was huge, a large collection of books, movies, games and music, along with a grand piano, large screen TV, couch, foosball table and its own kitchenette. It was more like a fancy apartment than a teenage boy’s bedroom. And that was nothing compared to the bathroom which looked more like part of a spa.

It was glamorous. She couldn’t help compare it to her own life. She had her own room, and a nice one at that, but it was nothing compared to Adrien’s.

She almost turned back. After all, Adrien’s family was rich and famous. Marinette Dupain-Cheng didn’t fit in there. Chloe had made that obvious to her over the years. But then she looked in on Adrien who was sitting on his couch, looking morose as he wrote in a notebook. He may have looked as if he were doing his homework, but his expression said that he was too deep in thought to be doing busy work.

Tikki was right. She couldn’t let things stay this way. He deserved a chance to talk; this time she wouldn’t run away until she made things right.

She gently knocked on the window.

At first, he looked up, glancing around the room for the source of the noise, but then spotted her. He paused, staring as if he couldn’t believe she was there before rushing to the window and opening it.

Ladybug stepped onto the metal frame of the window, but didn’t go in.

“Ladybug, I’m so glad—“ Adrien started, his face looking unsure. “I thought I wouldn’t see you unless an akuma attacked. And even then…” His eyes never left her face, his chin tilted up.

She had never received so much attention from Adrien before. His expression was soft, but intense at the same time, as if he were trying to keep her from running away with his eyes. She looked away, hand against the window pane. “I-I’m sorry for running away. I-I d-didn’t know what else to d-do.” She hated how much she stuttered. Why couldn’t her tongue work correctly just this once? Would it give her away?

“It’s okay. I’m just glad that you’re talking to me right now,” Adrien said.

She could actually feel when his eyes left her, and she glanced at him, rubbing the back of his neck. He was cute when he did that.

“I understand why you did run. Things are a little…strange.”

“Are you angry?”

His stare returned and she studied his wood floors.

“I’d never be angry with you, Ladybug. At least, not about this. Would you like to come in?”

Ladybug thought about going in, standing face-to-face with Adrien, and that made her knees feel weak. But thinking of him looking up at her with his head tilted at that angle didn’t seem right. “I’ll sit here,” she said, starting to sit on the window’s metal frame. That would make it so they were more or less the same height. But once the metal dug into the flesh of her butt, she winced, almost jumped, lost her balance and fell into Adrien’s room, landing half on her knees and hands, half on her face.

“Ladybug, are you okay?” Adrien asked, grabbing her elbow to help her up.

“I’m fine,” Ladybug said, standing up quickly, her back rigid. “Absolutely great. That hardly ever happens to me. Ha ha ha.”

_Hardly ever, at least as Ladybug,_ she told herself, appeasing her guilt for the little lie.

“Would you like to sit down?” Adrien asked, gesturing to the table, that snarky little smile of Cat Noir’s on his face. She wondered if he was suppressing a joke to be polite.

“Thank you,” Ladybug said, moving to the couch. She sat on one end, as close to the armrest as she could. She hadn’t see it before, but when her weight settled on the cushion, it bounced a small, black blob. Only when it moved, forming ears, whiskers and tail did she notice it.

“Are ya done with your stupid poem yet? I want to eat something,” a voice whined through a pink mouth. Large, green eyes opened sleepily before latching onto her. “Oh, you’re not Adrien.” The cat-like creature stretched and yawned, clearly not impressed with her presence.

Adrien, who sat not exactly in the middle of the couch but gave Ladybug a respectable amount of space, grabbed the creature around the nape. “Ladybug, this is my Kwami, Plagg. Plagg, I expect you to be on better behavior. For once.”

Ladybug stifled a giggle. Apparently Adrien didn’t have the same kind of relationship with his Kwami as she did with Tikki.

Plagg swatted at Adrien’s hand and scrambled out of the grip before floating closer to Ladybug. “Sure, I’ll be good. Just get me some Camembert.”

“Ugh, the last thing we need it the smell of stinky cheese,” Adrien protested. He turned to Ladybug. “Please don’t think I like smelling like an old man.”

“Ooooo, I wouldn’t want to ruin your date with Ladybug, love boy,” Plagg teased. He dodged Adrien’s attempt to grab him, darting to Ladybug and hiding behind her shoulder.

Ladybug recalled sometimes catching the scent of cheese off of Adrien. It reminded her of how her father once in a while will indulge in expensive cheeses. The smell didn’t bother her.

“It’s alright,” Ladybug said with a wave of one hand. “If he’s hungry, let him eat.”

“Thanks, Ladybug,” Plagg said. “You wouldn’t believe how much this guy starves me. He keeps all the cheese locked up and only gives me enough so he can transform.”

Ladybug raised an eyebrow. “I find that hard to believe. Even though Tikki eats cookies and sweets all day, she doesn’t have as round of a stomach as you.” She poked Plagg in the stomach.

“Hey, watch it,” Plagg said, grabbing the offended area. “I’m sensitive.”

Ladybug laughed.

Adrien had gone to the small kitchenette—gosh what else did his bedroom have—and brought back a small plate of smelly cheese, holding his nose. “There. Now, maybe while you stuff your face, the grown-ups can talk.”

Plagg zipped to the plate as it was set on the coffee table. “Grown-ups. Ha! I’m a thousand times older than you.”

“And you still act like a five-year-old,” Adrien retorted.

“Some of us remain young at heart.”

Adrien turned to Ladybug. “Kwamis, am I right?”

Ladybug smiled, getting an idea of Plagg’s personality.

That’s when Adrien’s attention returned to her. She had felt at east talking to Plagg; it felt familiar, almost like talking to Cat Noir. Despite their bantering, the two had a lot in common. But now that the cat Kwami was snarfing down his treat, the two humans had gone silent.

“Um…” Ladybug said, feeling as if she should go first. “I’m really sorry for last night. And the night before. I’m sorry for turning you down…and for everything. I’m sorry—“

“It’s okay,” Adrien interrupted, smiling. “You don’t have to apologize anymore. I’m glad that this happened. I’m just excited to have Ladybug in my room.” His face took a flash second to change to embarrassment. “That didn’t sound right. I mean, I’m glad you’re here, talking to me. And the face that you…like me...You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to hear you say that, say my real name.”

His words brought her both relief and dread. She felt pressured to reveal herself, feeling as if that was what he wanted. But she couldn’t. She couldn’t handle it if Adrien saw Marinette and was disappointed.

“What’s wrong?”

Ladybug didn’t realized she had been frowning until now. “Ever since I found out about you, I’ve been…confused.”

“Confused? About what?”

“About what we’re going to do. I…I’m sorry, but I really don’t want to tell you who I am. I’m afraid…that you won’t like who you see.”

“But I will.”

“You say that, but you don’t know. And if I do, I won’t be me; I’ll just be Ladybug to you. Even when I’m not wearing a mask, I’ll be Ladybug. And that’s not who I am. I’m…more than that.”

Adrien took a deep breath and looked away, deep in thought. “I understand. Sometimes, I feel the same way. I have some friends that I wonder if they would like me if I wasn’t Adrien Agreste: famous model. Or, I wonder if people would treat me differently if they knew I was Cat Noir.”

Ladybug hadn’t thought of that before. Perhaps, Adrien did understand. She looked around his room marveling at the fact that she was here, sitting next to Adrien, talking to him. She felt comfortable enough that she wasn’t stuttering. But she was Ladybug, not Marinette. None of her silly daydreams went this way.

“I sometimes imagined us talking like this,” Ladybug said, letting her feelings out. “I imagined that somehow, you’d look my way and by chance ask me out on a date. It would be fate, you choosing me out of all the girls in Paris. We’d maybe go to a movie and ice-cream afterwards. We’d walk and talk for hours, and you’d see the real me, the one that I hide. And we’d go on another date. And another one.

“And I wish that all of this never happened so that that might happen. Like a re-do button.”

Silence took the floor for a few beats before Adrien spoke.

“Why not?’

“What?” Ladybug asked.

“Let’s hit the re-do button,” Adrien said, standing up. He looked excited. “Well, kind of. Let’s try it out and see if it works.”

“What works?” Ladybug felt hope bubbling inside her.

Adrien sounded like Cat Noir when he had a good idea. He then bowed, dropped to one knee, took her hand and asked, “My Lady, would you do me the honor of going on a date with me tomorrow?”


	7. Adrien Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien attempts to find out who Marinette has a crush on. He makes some hard decisions about his feelings for Ladybug. Cat Noir has a conversation with Marinette.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait. Covid turned my life a bit chaotic.
> 
> Also, remember that in all the Adrien chapters, Adrien knows Marinette is Ladybug, but Marinette doesn't know who Cat Noir is.

Revealed (And Switched)

Chapter 7: Adrien Part 4

The words repeated over and over in Adrien’s mind.

_Adrien, I know you’re, like, super smart, but sometimes you’re so clueless._

He must be clueless if the mystery of Marinette’s crush was beyond his deduction.

A part of him, a jealous, ugly part, hated the thought that Chloe had figured it out and he didn’t. He had always been smarter than her, gotten better grades. No, that wasn’t the same thing. Just because he studied and was a good student didn’t make him a genius. And Chloe may not like school but that didn’t mean she was dumb. Sometimes she could be downright perceptive. Today proved that.

As the Gorilla drove him back to the Agreste manor, Adrien was so fixated on his hurt feelings that he completely forgot about Chloe’s hint until he was back in his bedroom, alone save for Plagg.

“So, Romeo, did you solve the riddle?” Plagg asked, his voice a mixture of curiosity and nonchalance. The black cat Kwami may try to act cool, but inside, he was probably wanting to know the answer to the riddle more than Adrien.

“No.” Adrien turned his face away, not wanting his partner to see the blush on his cheeks. “So, let’s think this over. When does Marinette stutter the most?” As far as his memories were concerned, Marinette’s stutter intensified for situations, not people except for Chloe and the occasional teacher.

It couldn’t be a teacher, could it?  
He wanted to eliminate this possibility, but there had been times when a young, male substitute had caused the girls in class to giggle during their lessons. Not to mention, he had read a few Japanese mangas where that was a common stereotype.

“Does Marinette like older guys?” Adrien didn’t mean to say this out loud, but he did.

“Oooo, like an older student?” Plagg asked, his curiosity winning over his usual neutral, sassy stance.

“Errr, yeah. Let’s go with that,” Adrien answered. _That’s better than her falling for a teacher._

“It would explain why she couldn’t love Cat Noir,” Plagg said with a Cheshire grin. “You’re so immature with those dumb jokes.”

“My jokes aren’t dumb,” Adrien defended, sounding like a child. “They’re just too sophisticated for the likes of you.”

He poked Plagg’s forehead before retrieving a notebook and sitting down to really think things through. First, he wrote down all the names of the boys in his class, then extended it to boys he remembered from other classes and grades. He then drew lines, making a chart with the names in one column and enough room to write notes down. Beside each name, he wrote down what he recalled of each boy and if they had any contact with Marinette. Those he knew she acted confident around, put a big, red X in a third column, eliminating them as suspects.

By the end, he had eliminated all but a handful of older boys that he recalled Marinette acting anxious around. He would have to do some investigating tomorrow at school to be sure.

“Hmmm, not bad. But there’s something you’re missing,” Plagg said, his voice sounding like bait in a trap.

“What am I missing?” Adrien asked, narrowing his eyes.

“If you can’t see it, I’m not going to tell you,” Plagg teased, showing his fangs in glee.

That was when Adrien realized that earlier, when he thought Plagg sounded curious, he had been mistaken. Plagg wasn’t interested in whom Marinette had a crush on. He knew!

“What do you know?” Adrien demanded.

“It’s no fun if I give you all the answers,” the Kwami replied.

Adrien lunged for the cat, falling onto the couch when he missed.

Plagged zipped upward out of reach, sticking out his tongue. “Missed me. Missed me.”

Growling, Adrien threw a pillow even though he knew his partner was too fast. “Get down here and tell me.”

Plagg continued to harry Adrien. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. After all, once I saw who Ladybug was, it was easy to guess who she liked.”

“Of course you’ve been able to figure out who she likes. You’ve been watching her for weeks,” Adrien said. “That’s totally unfair.”

“Chloe gave you a clue, and since I’m nicer than her, I’ll give you another,” Plagg said, giving a Cheshire grin. “The guy she likes, you’ve never spoken to him face to face.”

“Face to face? A riddle?” Adrien pouted, his mind running with the clue. “So, it’s some guy I’ve never talked to. No, someone I haven’t talked to face to face, but I have talked to them? So it is someone I know. Hmmm.” Ignoring Plagg’s knowing grin, he returned to his notebook, writing down the clues.

  1. _ Marinette acts differently around him._
  2. _ I’ve not met him but I know him._

Last, he added a third clue, one from Marinette’s poem.

  1. _ He has something to do with water._

Looking over his notes with this new clue, he was able to eliminate all but two boys. Both were in a higher grade. He remember Alya mentioning them as members of the writing club at school as well as one being a class’s representative. He was sure he hadn’t talked to them face to face, but had one of them shouted to him across a room? Or perhaps talked to him on the school’s website? Or in one of Nino’s group texts?

Or was he over-thinking this too much?

Adrien eyed his Kwami who had floated over to fall asleep on the TV. He had little contact with anyone outside of his classroom, and any interaction with either of these boys would be obscure at best. Did Plagg have that good of a memory? Or was the Kwami jerking him around?

“This is just going to drive me crazy,” Adrien muttered to himself, pushing the notebook away.

He needed to clear his mind, focus on something else, and perhaps get a fresh look at the riddle in the morning. As hard as it was to concentrate on something else, he dove into his schoolwork, including the limericks he started with Chloe, although they weren’t as humorous as he would have liked. After playing the piano and eating dinner, he tried sleeping. He managed to fall into a restless state, half within dreams and half awake, the puzzle of who held Marinette’s heart keeping him from sleep.

***

After hours of tossing and turning, Adrien awoke before dawn and stumbled through a shower and his morning ablutions before waiting at the table for Nathalie to arrive and serve him breakfast.

“May I have some coffee, please?” he requested.

Nathalie raised an eyebrow, not at the order, but more at his appearance, which wasn’t his normal, chipper self.

Soon, his father’s favorite blend of expresso was cradled in his hand, sipping it slowly and waiting for the caffeine to pump through his veins. He only drank half of the cup, wanting to be awake but not jittery.

Food and the coffee helped wash away the heavy feeling of a troubled night’s sleep. On his way to school, he pulled out the notebook he had made notes in the night before. Even though it seemed unlikely, he was determined to investigate those two boys. It was more likely that Marinette’s crush was someone he didn’t know or had already crossed off the list.

Still, it was worth it to check out those guys.

Unfortunately, traffic prevented his driver from getting to school early, and he had barely stepped over the threshold when the bell rang. As he sat down to Miss Bustier’s welcoming words and gestures, he turned the pages of his notebook to the poems he wrote, hiding the chart about Marinette’s crush.

Miss Bustier began her class much like the previous one, calling two students up front to read a poem. Nino recited a hilarious limerick about a turtle that liked mock turtle soup, then Mylene shared a sonnet. By the latter’s blushes, the lyrics most likely were about Ivan.

“Thank you, Mylene,” Miss Bustier said, giving the shy girl’s shoulders an encouraging squeeze before sending the student back to her seat. “I’m so proud to hear such wonderful poems. I look forward to hearing more tomorrow. Now, we’ve covered sonnets with a theme of love, and limericks with humor. However, not all poems evoke positive emotions. Poetry can also bring to light the uglier part of humanity.”

“Like Hawkmoth,” Alya quipped, getting a few nervous laughs from the others.

Miss Bustier gave a thin smile at that. “Several writers portrayed the harsher areas of the human condition. There are many emotions that we don’t like about ourselves but we still need to acknowledge that they exist if humankind is to defeat that darker part of themselves. What are some of these emotions?”

Alya raised her hand. “Hatred.”

Mylene also answered with, “Fear.”

“Jealousy,” Kim volunteered.

“Very good,” Miss Bustier said. “Jealousy is what I’d like to cover today. It is something that everyone in this classroom has experienced at one point in their life. There are things that we want that others have. And while it is not wrong to want to better our lives and ourselves, it can twist a person to do ugly things if they cannot defeat their own jealousy.”

The words cut into Adrien’s heart, as if Miss Bustier knew what else was hidden in his notebook. He clenched his hands and nibbled on his lip as he listened.

“Earlier in the year, we read some of William Blake’s poems. Do you remember _My Pretty Rose Tree_ how a man owned a beautiful rose tree and kept it hidden? And although it was the prettiest tree and he took very good care of it, the rose tree grew thorns. This is what jealousy can do to a person.”

Adrien recalled the day that he lied to the sculptor, Theo, because he was jealous of the man’s admiration for Ladybug. That wasn’t his finest moment. How many times had jealousy made people the perfect victim for Hawkmoth to prey on?

“Today we’ll be working on heroic stanzas with iambic pentameter. I know it sounds complicated, but this is the most common style of poem. Many children’s books and nursery rhymes are written in this format,” Miss Bustier continued her lecture, but Adrien was only half-listening.

He turned the page of his notebook, gazing down at the chart he had carefully constructed. Why had he made it? Was he doing it for Marinette’s good? Would anything change if he knew who the guy was? How would he treat the boy who Marinette…who Ladybug loved?

_Jealousy can twist a person._

He tore out the page, wad it up, and put it in his pocket. It didn’t matter who it was Marinette liked. Wasn’t it more important that she was happy, even if it meant Ladybug would never love Cat Noir?

His heart lightened, and a smile appeared on his face. He felt as refreshed as if he had slept the night peacefully. Perhaps it was enough just to be friends with Ladybug and Marinette. Being around her was good enough for him. He would accept that and no longer pursue her.

***

The minute class ended, Nino jumped at Adrien, waving his phone in his friend’s face. “Dude, you’ve got to confirm if the rumors are true.”

“What rumors?” Adrien asked, trying hard not to let his eyes wander to Marinette. She was whispering with Alya. What was she saying?

“The ones Chloe is saying about you,” Nino said.

“I don’t—What rumors?” Adrien cried out, shocked into reality. He took Nino’s phone, reading a series of texts from a large group.

“The rumor that you’ve got the hots for Ladybug, of course,” Nino said. “It’s not a terrible rumor if it’s false, but I just wanted to make sure.”

Adrien sighed, remembering that was exactly what he told Chloe. He should have known that she wouldn’t keep that tidbit a secret, especially since he didn’t ask her to keep it confidential. Not that it mattered if the whole school knew, but if any reporter caught wind of it, the tabloids would be photoshopping his and Ladybug’s picture for all to see.

He didn’t want to do anything to irritate Ladybug, especially since he barely resolved his feelings for her only minutes ago.

“Hang on,” Adrien said, handing the phone back to Nino and standing up. He walked over to Chloe, who was touching up her lip gloss with a compact mirror. “Chloe, why did you tell everyone that I liked Ladybug?”

“Oh, you’re so totally welcome Adri-kins,” Chloe said, pouting her lips out to her reflection. “I’m sure once Ladybug hears about it, she’s totally going to pay you a visit.”

As much as Adrien wanted to scold Chloe, he couldn’t. In her own way, she was trying to help him. It wasn’t a well-thought-out plan, but she did it for him.

“It’s just that, I wanted to tell Ladybug myself,” Adrien said, omitting the fact that he already confessed his feelings. “Chloe, please don’t tell anyone else. Especially anyone outside of the school. I don’t want my personal life to be known to the public.”

Chloe turned away from the mirror, her face of genuine sorrow. “I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t think,” she said, her usual confidence ebbed away. “Are you mad?”

“No, I’m not. I’m just…confused right now,” he said, being honest. “I know you were trying to help. Thanks Chloe.”

She leaped up, hugging him and giving him a kiss on the cheek. “You know I’d do anything for you, Adrien. I promise not to say another word about it.”

He remembered how she confessed her own feelings for him yesterday and was glad he wasn’t mad. She was sincerely loyal to him even though he had turned her down. She was an example to follow, at least in this aspect. “And I’m here for you as well,” he said, squeezing her hand. “Thank you.”

He returned to his seat, confused by the slacked jaw expression of Nino, Alya, and Marinette.

“Okay, now I’m all sorts of confused,” Alya said, leaning forward in her seat. “After that, I don’t know what to believe. Adrien, give us the scoop. Are you dating Chloe?”

“Why would you think that?” Adrien asked.

“Dude, when I mentioned the rumor of you liking Ladybug, you totally rushed over to Chloe and had that huge moment. The whole class saw,” Nino jumped in, gesturing wildly. “Look around. Everyone is watching you like it’s some sort of soap opera.”

Adrien turned around and noticed how the other students suddenly were interested in their notebooks, their phones, or their nails. Rose was even trying to read a magazine upside-down.

_Great, as if my “love-life” wasn’t messy enough_, Adrien thought. He took a deep breath before unraveling this major misunderstanding. “First, yes, the rumor is true. I do like Ladybug. I told Chloe yesterday while we were writing poems, and I thought she knew it was a secret. I guess she misunderstood and spread it around, apparently with the hopes of Ladybug finding out or something,” he quickly explained.

Suddenly, he realized that Marinette was watching and listening this entire time. He just told Ladybug that he, Adrien Agreste, liked her. His face grew hot. He lowered his head and turned around, not wanting to see what her expression. It didn’t matter if she pitied him or was aggravated by having another boy after her heart. He couldn’t take being rejected again, especially since he didn’t initiate this situation.

“Hey, no need to be embarrassed, dude,” Nino said, giving a soft tap on his arm. “Probably most of the guys in school have a crush on Ladybug. I totally would if I didn’t have someone better.” He swiveled his head so he could wink at Alya.

“Same here,” Alya said with humor lacing her tone followed by a quick laugh.

Adrien folded his arms and leaned against the table. “Can we please talk about something else?” he asked, wishing for the next teacher to switch out with Miss Bustier so that he could forget that this disaster ever occurred.

***

The end of the day couldn’t have come fast enough. Luckily, he had a photoshoot, his first in a long time, right after school and he couldn’t linger. The entire day, he ignored everyone and especially Marinette. He was sure she would say something to him. She always tried to cheer everyone up when they were down, but he couldn’t handle being around her at that moment. But at the same time, he ached to be with her. No, he wanted to be around Ladybug. Or was it Marinette?

He was getting better at thinking them as the same person, but it was hard not to compare them. Just as he changed whenever he put on the mask, she was different. But there were times, Marinette acted like Ladybug and visa versa.

By the end of the day, he wasn’t just exhausted physically but mentally as well. After picking at his dinner, he retreated to his room. His body urged him to go to bed early, but the desire to seek the freedom of rooftops and the night was a stronger call. He transformed into Cat Noir and escaped out the window.

Almost unconsciously, he made his way to the Dupain-Cheng household, hesitating in the shadows of the chimneys across the street. Just like that night weeks ago before fighting Glaciator, Marinette was on the roof, leaning against the metal rail. His keen eyes could see a small red and black blob hovering near her head. Her kwami.

He should go. He shouldn’t intrude.

But part of him wondered if it would be better to reveal that he knew her secret, to tell her right there that he knew she was Ladybug and who he was. It wouldn’t change their relationship, he was certain, but these secrets were getting to be too much for him.

He was about to leave and take out his frustration by running until he was exhausted, but he miscalculated the angel of the roof, slipped and fell, shouting before catching his claws on a rain gutter.

“Cat Noir?”

He turned his head. Marinette was looking at him, leaning her top half over the rail.

“Are you okay?”

He kicked off the building and flipped back onto the shingles, waving to her.

Marinette place a hand to her chest, a sign of relief. Her Kwami seemed to be out of sight.

What if he went over and talked to her? What harm would that be? After all, the last time he was feeling down, by chance, she was around to talk to.

In one leap, he crossed the street and landed on the chimney behind her.

“What are you doing here, Cat Noir?” she asked, straightening her back.

He hesitated, gathering his thoughts before replying. “I had a…bad day. Somehow, I ended up here. You were so easy to talk to before, I guess I wanted to see you.”

“Uh…I was?” Marinette asked, still looking stiff. Maybe she was worried about her Kwami being seen.

Did he give the Kwami enough time to hide before coming over? Just in case, he jumped down next to her and leaned against the railing, purposely turning his attention away from the hatch in the roof. “Yeah. You’re kind of the first I told that I like…liked Ladybug,” he said, stumbling over his words as he remembered his resolve from before. “I even told you before I told her.”

“Really?” Marinette’s voice changed, no longer startled, but more assured. “So…you must have told her.”

_Right…I have to pretend they aren’t the same person,_ Adrien thought before answering. “Yeah. And I got rejected…twice.”

“That must have been…”

“Painful? Yeah.”

“I’m sorry,” Marinette said.

Cat Noir felt her hand on his arm. He turned to her, seeing the lights of Paris reflected in her big blue eyes. “I’m not,” he said. “I’m glad I told her and that I know that she likes someone else. Because then I can let her go.”

“Let her go?”

“Yeah. My feelings aren’t going to go away anytime soon, but I can move on now,” he said. He didn’t realize just how much he needed to tell this to someone until that moment. He took a deep breath. “It’s for the best.”

“Wow, Cat Noir, who knew you could be so mature.”

_Now, that sounded like Ladybug._

“Hey, I have you know that I’m very mature,” Cat Noir said with a wry grin. “I just keep it a secret to throw off the villains.”

“Oh, is that right? You could have fooled me,” Marinette said with a smirk. As if she had been pricked, she jumped, stiffening. “I mean, you fooled everyone. That is pretty smart.”

_She must be trying not to act like Ladybug around me,_ he realized. A part of him wanted to push her, maybe call her on it. If he pretended to guess she was Ladybug…

“So, why did you have a bad day?” Marinette asked, breaking him away from his thoughts. “That is, if you don’t mind me asking.”

Cat Noir smiled and sat on the railing. “It’s just that I decided that even though I still have feelings for Ladybug, I’m going to try to get over them.” He turned away to look at the city, aware of the irony of unloading his heart on Marinette. “I realized that I was jealous of the guy she really likes, even though I don’t know anything about him. Kind of silly, isn’t it? I hated him. He could have been the nicest guy on the planet, and I hated that Ladybug liked him.”

He turned his head to see Marinette’s reaction. She seemed stunned. Was it because he, Cat Noir, was talking to her like this? Or was it because of what he said?

“I didn’t want to ruin our friendship. She means so much to me.” He drew up his knees and put his folded arms on them. “Sorry to dump this all on you. I don’t have anyone else.” It was kind of true. Only Plagg and Marinette knew his feelings for Ladybug officially, and using Plagg as an emotion support was like using hedge trimmers to cut your hair.

“Really?” Marinette’s voice was soft, understanding. “I guess super heroes don’t make many friends on the job.”

“We don’t have much of a chance to socialize,” Cat Noir said, making his voice light. He recalled the last time he had spoken to Marinette on her roof. “Well, enough about me. Last time we talked, you had your heart broken, too.”

“Oh, that. Oh, that was nothing,” Marinette said quickly, waving her hands. “It was just a misunderstanding.”

Cat Noir smiled softly. “That’s good to know. At least one of us is doing better.”

Marinette’s expression slowly fell, looking sorrowful. “That’s not…entirely true. The guy I like…he…” She stopped.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Cat Noir said. “I didn’t come here to pry into your personal life.”

“No, I want to. It’s just…complicated. You see, I’ve liked him for a long time, but I’ve never had the courage to tell him. And I don’t think I ever can,” she said softly.

“Why?”

“Because he likes someone else. And not just anyone; this girl is…amazing. She’s in a totally different league than I am.”

“So, he’s dating her?” Cat Noir asked, his curiosity piqued.

“No…As I said, it’s complicated.”  
“It sounds simple. If he’s not dating anyone, then you should tell him how you feel,” Cat Noir urged gently. “Perhaps once he realizes you like him, he’ll change his mind. After all, a crush isn’t permanent. Teenage boys fall in and out of love all the time.”

Marinette giggled. “That’s exactly what my friend, Alya, said.”

“Sounds like you have a good friend to support you.”

“I have two good friends,” Marinette said easily, giving him a smile. Once again, she seemed to realize what she said and stiffened. “I mean…that is…if you don’t mind me calling you a friend…”

He hopped off the rail, snatched up Marinette’s hand, and shook it. “I would be proud to call you my friend, Marinette. That is, if you don’t mind having this alley cat prowling around here once in a while.”

“If I recall, usually if one wants a cat to return, one has to feed them. Care for some chocolate-chip cookies?”

Cat Noir’s ears perked up. “If you’re offering food, I definitely am coming back.”

When Marinette returned, the two ate cookies and watched the cars and people go by on the streets, chatting about menial things but mostly sat in silence. After a while, Marinette’s phone rang; Alya was calling.

“I’ve got to take this,” Marinette said.

“I should go then,” Cat Noir said, reluctant to leave. He had been enjoying the evening, and not just because of the chocolate-chip cookies. He jumped onto the railing, preparing to leap away.

“Will you come back?” Marinette asked before he left. “That is, if you want to. If you need someone to talk to, I’ll listen.”

“Thanks, Marinette. I might take you up on that offer sooner rather than later. Those were excellent cookies.” Then he jumped away, running along rooftops all the way to the Agreste Manor.

As he released Plagg from the transformation, he plopped onto the couch with a sigh. Perhaps going to see Marinette wasn’t the best idea. Not only did it not help him release his love for Ladybug, but being around the dark-haired girl only solidified his feelings.

“Marinette is amazing,” he breathed, running his fingers through his hair. “Whoever this guy is, he must be blind.”

“Oh, yeah. Totally,” Plagg agreed, rummaging around the room, most likely in search of his favorite, stinky snack. “Blind as a bat.”

“Marinette deserves to be happy, and if this guy is the one for her, then I’m going to make sure she has the best chance,” Adrien said, sitting up.

Plagg snorted and laughed. “Oh, you playing match-maker? Oh, this is too funny. I can’t wait to see this.”

“Mock all you like, Plagg. I’m going to make sure Marinette gets the dream date she’s always wanted.”


	8. Marinette Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug goes on her date with Adrien.

Revealed and Switched

Chapter 8: Marinette Part 4

7:30

Marinette glared at the clock. She was supposed to meet Adrien at eight. If she left now, she would be too early. As Ladybug, it would take her approximately eight minutes. That left her twenty-two minutes to wait.

“I’m going to check my make-up again,” Marinette informed Tikki, rushing to the bathroom.

“You’re make-up is fine,” Tikki said, giggling, pulling on the girl’s hair. “Besides, most of its going to be hidden under your mask.”

“Not my lip gloss,” Marinette said. “And it always wears off quickly.”

“Because you keep biting your lip.”

“Maybe I should take a purse with me to carry some extra? Or maybe I should do my hair differently? What do you think of this outfit?” Marinette knew she was ranting, but she couldn’t stop. She couldn’t calm down. How could she when she was going on a date with Adrien?

“You’re outfit is wonderful, even though Adrien isn’t going to see it,” Tikki said, rolling her eyes. “Marinette, quit freaking out. If you’re just going to stress yourself out, leave right now.”

Marinette squished her cheeks with her hands. “But if I go now, I’ll be twenty minutes early. What if Adrien is getting dressed or is still in the shower? That would totally be inappropriate. He’ll think I’m a pervert!”

Tikki laughed so hard, she fell out of the air. “Stop overthinking things. Chances are, Adrien is just as nervous. He’s probably completely ready and waiting for you.”

The clock read 7:35.

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to be a little early. I could go slow so I don’t get all sweaty,” Marinette decided tentatively. Grabbing her purse for Tikki to hide in, she went downstairs to the delicious aromas of freshly baked goods. Her parents had been up for hours baking their trade.

“Good morning. You’re up early for a weekend,” her mother chimed. “I don’t suppose that’s an indication you’re going to spend the day with your dear parents.”

Marinette smiled, knowing the Chinese woman was teasing. “No, I’m actually going to the library to study. Got a big test coming up.”

“You’ll need brain food, then. Have some croissants or a Danish,” her father pressed.

Although her stomach was empty, the butterflies that pounded inside of her made her queasy. “Ah, no thanks. I’ll grab a smoothie on the way,” she quickly lied, which made the butterflies flap more furious. Somehow, lying to her parents about going to meet a boy was worse than lying about her being Ladybug.

She rushed out, nearly colliding with a few customers coming into the shop, racing down the street to a spot she occasionally used to transform into Ladybug discretely. Luckily, the streets were empty.

As Ladybug, she kept catching herself sprinting along the rooftops. She was so used to running at full speed that she wasn’t sure how to travel slow as a superhero. When she arrived at the Agreste mansion, her heart was working faster than what a brief run would make it pump. She felt as if she were in a roller coaster as it slowly ascended before dropping in that first freefall. Could this really be happening? Was she really going to go through with having a date with Adrien?

Before she could change her mind, she swung over to Adrien’s window and knocked. The announcement wasn’t needed; he was already watching for her, ready to unlatch the window.

“You’re early,” he said, his voice friendly. As he offered her a hand down, she blushed at his touch.

“Early? Really? Maybe by a few minutes, I guess,” she ranted, feeling as if she had to respond. “I mean, I can find your house easily. It’s not that far away. But not that we live super close. My parents totally can’t afford this neighborhood. I wish we could. I walk here all the time, and the houses are beautiful. I mean, I’m not here all the time. It’s not like I come here to stalk you or anything. Just when it’s convenient. You know, running errands and stuff.” Her face just kept getting warmer and warmer the more she spoke. Perhaps it wasn’t too late for her to swing out of there and go home to bury her humiliation in a pile of blankets.

“Wow, you make punctuality sound guilty,” Adrien said with an amused smirk.

The comment was supposed to lighten the mood, but it only added to Ladybug’s embarrassment. Why couldn’t she say the right things around Adrien? Where was her usual Ladybug confident? Before she realized it, she had her face covered by her hands and slightly turned away from the young man.

“Hey, come on. I’ve teased you way worse than that as Cat Noir.” Adrien took her hands in his, opening her fingers like a door so he could look into her eyes. “It’s odd to see a shy Ladybug.”

The smile and wide green eyes staring into her melted her insides. His voice was gentle, friendly, but at the same time, she could hear Cat Noir’s playful tone. Two sides of the same coin. How was it that his two egos were complete opposites but at the same time complimentary?

Ladybug fought against her nature to erupt into a stuttering mess at his touch. “Yes, I agree. It is odd. I’m usually not like this, at least, not as Ladybug.” Sadness wiped away her embarrassment. Not wanting Adrien to know that his comment stung her, she straightened up and stepped away as if wanting to explore his room. “So, what are we doing on our d-d-date?” She cursed herself for tongue stumbling over the last word.

“Oh, right,” Adrien said, rushing over to a pile of clothing on his couch and, before Ladybug could react, he had pulled a green hoodie over her head, plopped a hat on her crown and place a large set of thick-rimmed glasses on her face.

“Okay, this is officially the weirdest date I’ve been on,” Ladybug said, omitting the fact that it was the first date she’d ever gone on.

“Well, the whole point of this date is for me to get to know the girl behind the mask, right?” Adrien started to explain. “So, this is your disguise. Sorry, I don’t have any girl clothes. Maybe next time, I could sneak into my father’s studio and grab some. For now, this will do.”

“So…I’m in a disguise in a disguise,” Ladybug said with a laugh. “Kind of redundant.”

“It was either this or you unmask yourself first, but I didn’t think you’d feel comfortable with that.” Adrien looked away, seeming embarrassed. “Anyway, this way, you can feel like yourself without revealing who you are.”

Ladybug gave him a halfway frown but then spotted herself in a mirror. She looked like Ladybug still—albeit in a sad attempt to go incognito—but then she noticed what kind of hat Adrien had placed on her head. It was the derby hat she had made. Was this a hint that he may know her secret? Or perhaps it was a coincidence? Either way, he had kept her hat. That made her heart flutter.

“Great idea,” she told Adrien, pulling the glasses off. “But I don’t wear glasses. These are going to bug me.” She tossed them onto the coffee table.

“Alright. You’re ready for our date, but I’m not.” Adrien then pulled out a cheap black mask and a headband with black cat ears to put on. “Ta da.”

It wasn’t until then that Ladybug realized that Adrien was wearing all black. She was so distracted that she hadn’t noticed his unusual wardrobe choice. But now, with the accessories, he looked like Adrien in a bad Cat Noir costume.

She snorted, twisting her mouth to prevent from laughing hard. “Okay, why?” she asked, wondering about his logic.

“You weren’t embarrassed or shy when I was just Cat Noir,” Adrien said, spreading his arms to finish his explanation.

“Then why not just be Cat Noir. Why the costume?” Ladybug asked.

“Well…there may not be anyone else in the house right now with my father and Natalie gone, but my bodyguard is still outside. If he were to come in a check on me…”

“…You’d rather he think you’re some sort of obsessed Cat Noir fan rather than the real McCoy,” Ladybug finished with a laugh. “Imagine if your fans saw you like this. Or Chloe.”

“You know Chloe?”

Ladybug froze in mid-laugh. She hadn’t meant that to slip. But if there was one thing she was good at, it was pulling half-truths out of thin air. “Uh…yeah, of course. What kind of Adrien fan would I be if I didn’t know that the mayor’s daughter has a personal connection to you?” She laughed nervously.

“I guess that’s true,” Adrien said, nodding his head. “But you do know that the rumors aren’t true? She’s not my girlfriend. We’re just really close.”

Ladybug sighed with relief that Adrien bought her excuse, but a tinge of guilt lingered. After all, she wasn’t lying to protect the secret of the Miraculous but for her own benefit. Somehow this was different. But she didn’t want Adrien to find out about who she was, at least not now. Maybe with time…

“Hey, your costume isn’t complete,” Ladybug realized, distracting herself from her guilty thoughts. “Where’s your bell?”

Adrien’s face sagged with irritation, all Cat Noir now. “The costume’s bell actually rings, so I’m definitely not wearing it. Although…” He moved closer, smiling. “If you really want me to…”

Ladybug wanted to laugh because it was Cat Noir, but Marinette wanted to blush because Adrien said it. In the end, she did both. “Okay, silly kitty. Let’s get this date started,” she said, trying to cover up how much she liked that cheesy line. “I’m guessing we’re not going to the movies or anything dressed as we are. So what do you have planned for us?”

“First off, M’lady, as any good host makes sure to keep his guests properly refreshed with food and drink. I thought that we would start with a brunch.”

At the mention of sustenance, Ladybug’s stomach gurgled, reminding her that she had skipped breakfast. “That sounds great.”

Adrien offered his arm, and Ladybug took it. Even with cheap mask and floppy ears, he looked and acted so much like Cat Noir that she didn’t blush when she laid her hands on his bicep.

_His plan is working. I don’t feel like such an idiot around him._

As they walked, Ladybug took a look at the Agrestes’ home. She had been in Adrien’s home a few times, but it was either on a mission as Ladybug or that one time she snuck in to sign his birthday card, each occasion didn’t allow her to appreciate the grandeur and beauty of the décor. While it was lovely and tastefully done, it was cold and immaculate much like a museum or art gallery.

Ladybug liked looking at the house, but she couldn’t imagine living there. Her home was smaller, more crowded, but it was familiar and cozy. Did Adrien like his house? She wondered, considering that his room was nothing like the rest of the mansion.

They passed through a long hallway, turning into a pair of swinging doors and entering a kitchen that her father would probably drool over. The state of the art appliances were a combination of black and stainless steel. The countertops were high quality granite and gleamed. Everything was in its place and had been scrubbed down. Or was it because nobody had ever used the kitchen?

“First things first, M’lady. I’m going to make you breakfast,” Adrien said, presenting the kitchen with a quick turn and a bow.

“Oh, really…” Ladybug said with a wry grin. “Have you ever cooked anything?”

“In Home Ec., we made cookies.” Adrien waved his phone. “I found a few recipes online. How hard can it be?”

“I’ll add those to Cat Noir’s famous last words,” Ladybug said. “Perhaps I could help?”

“Nope,” Adrien denied, pulling out flour, sugar, butter, and eggs. “I’m doing this all for you.” He blew her a kiss.

“Soooo, I’m to stand here and watch you make breakfast.” Ladybug leaned her elbows against the counter, cupping her face. “Fuuuuun.”

“There’s some fruit in the fridge to go with the croissants I’m making.”

“Why does it feel like I’m being patronized?” Ladybug replied sarcastically, making her way to the large refrigerator. When she opened the door, she gazed at the contents in surprise. There was little on the shelves besides a bag of grapes and two containers of strawberries and raspberries.

I guess the kitchen doesn’t get used at all.

As she carried the fruit to the sink, she wondered what kind of meals Adrien and his father ate. Perhaps they ordered out a lot, and home-cooking was a rarity, completely opposite of her family. Her parents were amazing bakers but pastries and bread weren’t the only things they made. They were good cooks, too, especially her mother who learned from her uncle.

She thought about Adrien as she rinsed off the fruit and arranged it on a platter in a visually pleasing way. It took her less than five minutes. As she carried the platter back to the island counter where Adrien labored, she laughed.

Adrien had pulled his Cat Noir gloves off and was elbow deep in croissant dough. Flour dusted his face and his clothes. He moved his fingers clumsily as he kneaded the dough.

“That’s a cute look for you,” Ladybug said. “All you need is an apron.”

Adrien looked up and smiled. “So, you think I’m cute, M’lady?” He winked.

Ladybug had almost forgotten she was talking to her long-time crush, overlooking that it wasn’t Cat Noir in the kitchen. She had just called Adrien cute. And he winked at her. Her face burned hot enough to bake the dough Adrien was squashing with his palms.

She needed something to distract herself. “You need to use more butter,” she said, concentrating on the croissants. “It makes them light and flakey. Otherwise, you might as well just make rolls.” She itched to get her hands on the dough. It would take her only a few minutes to finish the job.

Adrien added more butter, but as he kneaded the dough again, it was like he was trying to compress it. Light and fluffy? They’ll be lucky if the croissants don’t turn out to be as hard as rocks.

“Hey, I got this,” he told her as if knowing how worried she was. “If I knead any help, I’ll ask.”

Ladybug gave a teasing groan. “Oh, you went for so long without saying a horrible pun, I thought you were going for a record.”

“That was the record,” Adrien said. “What is a baker’s favorite song?”

She knew this one. It was a big hit with her dad. “Please don’t say it.”

“Dough rei me. What did the bread say on his date?”

She wasn’t going to encourage him.

“I loaf you. How did the bread break up with his date.”

No, she wasn’t going to react.

“You deserve butter than this.”

Oh, so terrible.

“Yeah, that one was a little stale. But I thought I was on a roll.”

“If I laugh, will you please stop,” Ladybug said.

“It’s the yeast I can do.”

She chortled while shaking her head. “Just because you’re Adrien Agreste, doesn’t make you funnier.”

He gave her a sweet, innocent smile that had too much Cat Noir in it to be enchanting. Then he went back to attacking the croissant dough.

Ladybug contemplated stepping in even if she had to force Adrien away from the poor, defenseless dough, but she decided against it. She didn’t want to see Cat Noir’s pout on Adrien’s face. Instead, she picked up a strawberry and bit into it. Once she swallowed, she asked, “So, do you enjoy school? What’s your favorite subject?”

“I love school. This is my first year in public school,” Adrien said, his palms pounding into the dough as if it had been akumatized. “Before that, I had private tutors, either college students trying to earn food money or retired professors. Besides Chloe, I hadn’t met anyone my own age except other models. So, I guess I’d have to say that my favorite thing about school is making friends and talking to everyone in my class.”

Ladybug tried not to dwell on how lonely Adrien must have been before joining her class this year. While modeling and having private tutors sounded good and fancy to her, what was it like to only have Chloe as a friend?

“You didn’t answer my question,” Ladybug said, eating the rest of the strawberry. “What’s your favorite subject?”

Adrien pulled out a rolling pin and attacked the dough in quick, rough strokes. “All of them.”

“That’s cheating,” Ladybug said with a smirk. “You have to pick one.”

Adrien blew out a lungful of air slowly as if thinking. “Probably math.”

Ladybug stuck out her tongue. “Yuck. How can you like math?”

Adrien shrugged. “It’s simple and easy.”

“Yeah, if you’re in the first grade.”  
“No, think about it. You’re given a problem and there is only just one, solid answer. There’s no memorization needed. No essays. No gray areas. Just one answer. Easy Peasy. What about you? What’s your favorite subject?”

She considered this, mostly wondering if this would give her secret away. “It’s a toss-up between writing and art.” Before she could think of a new question, Adrien beat her to it.

“What do you like to do? Besides school?” he asked as he carved triangles in the dough, rolled the pieces and placed them on a baking sheet. They looked sad for croissants, lop-sided and squished.

She shook her head. If she said she liked to design clothing, would he know she was Marinette? This was Paris, after all. How many teenage girls out there dreamed of being a clothing designer?

Instead, she said, “I like listening to music and hanging with my friends.”

“What’s your favorite band?”

“Jagged Stone. I’m a huge fan.”

“As I recall, he’s a huge fan of you, too,” Adrien said with a wink. “You know, I have a friend who actually designed his newest CD cover.”

Ladybug blinked as her mind tried to process how she was supposed to react to that. He was talking about Marinette. Shouldn’t she be acting surprised? Or happy? Maybe a mixture of both?

“That’s really cool,” she said, trying to sound natural. Should she ask about Marinette? Would that be pushing things? “Is she from your school?”

“Yeah, in my class,” Adrien said, putting the tray into the oven before turning on the heat.

Ladybug itched to correct him. He needed to preheat the oven first. And the croissants were spaced too closely together. But now was her chance to know what Adrien thought of Marinette.

She sent out a line, hoping to catch something. “She must be an amazing artist to catch Jagged Stone’s eye.” It was hard to not act too interested.

“It couldn’t have happened to a better person,” Adrien said, setting the timer. “Well, now all we need to do is wait. What do you want to do for ten minutes exactly?”

Ladybug matched his grin but not for the same reason. Those croissants won’t be ready in ten minutes. She wished she could ask more about what he thought of Marinette, but it would be weird to go back to that subject. Instead she continued the questioning game by asking, “What about you? What does the world-famous Adrien Agreste do in his spare time when he’s not going to school, modeling, or saving the world?”

“Who says I have spare time?” Adrien asked, hands on hips, his smile Cat Noir-style teasing. “Do I have to be absolutely purrrr-fect for you?”

Ladybug grimaced. “Back to cat puns. Did you run out of baking ones?”

“No need to get catty. I’m just being my a-furr-able self.”

“Don’t you start. You have to have at least one hobby?” Ladybug said, leaning against the counter.

Adrien tapped his lip. The flour on his finger tip dusted his skin. “Hmmm. I play the piano, but that is in my bio, so you already know that. What else… Oh, I like logic grid puzzles.”

“Logic grid puzzles? Like sudoku?”

“Kind of. It’s where you’re given a list of hints, and you have to figure out the puzzle. For example, one will list five different people who live in five different cities and each have a different car with a different color. Through the clues, you have to figure out who lives where, which car they have and what color each car is.”

“Yeah, I think we had to do one of those in math last year,” Ladybug recalled, scrunching her nose. The assignment was challenging, but she wouldn’t have called it fun.

“There are tons of puzzles on the Internet. Sometimes, if I have to wait around, I’ll find one on my phone and work it out in my notebook. It passes the time,” Adrien said. He jumped up to sit on the counter. “It makes me feel like Sherlock Holmes working on a problem, going through the process of elimination until I find the right answer.”

At one point, Marinette had kept a list of things she knew about Adrien Agreste in her journal. She kept adding to it every once in a while, but only a little at a time. In this one morning, she could have tripled the list. The more she knew about Adrien, the more she loved him.

Their conversation started out with taking turns asking questions then became more relaxed, talking as if they didn’t have this secret between them. Ladybug was so happy and comfortable that she forgot she was wearing a mask and a superhero suit, and after a while, Adrien and Cat Noir blended into one, someone that made her blush and roll her eyes all at the same time. They would have talked the day away if an alarm didn’t go off.

But not the alarm they expected.

It was a wonder they didn’t smell the smoke seeping out of the oven before the smoke detector did. As fast as two super-powered teens could act, Ladybug had grabbed the oven mitts and pulled out the baking sheet, coughing as a cloud billowed into her face, and Adrien opened a window and turned on a ventilation fan to clear away the toxic smell.

“I set the timer. Why didn’t it go off?” Adrien asked between coughs, waving a towel to move the smoke out the window.

Ladybug looked at the timer on the oven and laughed. “You set it for ten hours, not minutes,” she said, showing that the croissants had been baking for over thirty minutes.

Adrien slapped his forehead. “I’m sorry, M’lady. I guess I’m not that good of a chef as I thought. Let me make it up—“ He didn’t get far into his next sentence, stopping as a voice called his name and the silver kitchen doors swung open.

“Adrien, the smoke alarm went off? Is everything alright?”

Quick reflexes worked faster than her brain. Even before Ladybug comprehended that Adrien’s father had entered the room, she had dropped to the floor, the island the only thing between her and Gabriel Agreste.

“Father!”

“There seems to be no fire. Are you okay?”

“Uh, yeah. I just burnt some croissants,” Adrien answered. “Everything is fine. What are you doing back home?”

Ladybug couldn’t see the elder Agreste, but she had a clear view of Adrien’s expression, a mixture of worry and false nonchalance.

“I forgot some swatches. Are you alone? I thought I saw someone else—What are you wearing?”

There was a pregnant pause as Adrien lowered his eyebrows, thinking, before realizing his choice of wardrobe. He quickly pulled off the mask and kitty ears. “Oh…uh…this is…I can explain.” He glanced down at Ladybug for a microsecond before fixating on his father, looking pale.

“Nightingale!” Adrien exclaimed, probably louder than intended. “Yeah, you know the music video I was in. At first, she wanted me to wear a Cat Noir costume. Well, some of the kids from school saw me, and they want to put on a play…about Ladybug and Cat Noir.”

“And you’re in the role of Cat Noir?”

Ladybug wished she could see Gabriel’s face at that moment. Was he shocked? Happy? Confused?

“Maybe. They haven’t had auditions yet. I haven’t decided,” Adrien said, looking more relaxed. “I don’t really think I fit the role well. I was thinking of trying for the part of Hawkmoth.”

She had to cover her mouth there. A fit of laughter threatened to bubble up her throat.

“Hmmm. Just so that it doesn’t interfere with your schedule.” There was a pair of footsteps before Gabriel added, “You might want to rethink the Cat Noir role. It…fits you. Somehow.”

More footsteps, then the sound of the doors swinging.

Adrien leaned against the island, head hanging. After a minute, he caught Ladybug’s eyes.

She couldn’t handle it any more. She let the tickle in her belly out, laughing so hard, her ribs hurt as if she ran five miles.

Adrien, laughing as well, slid to the floor, his back against the cabinets, sounding more relieved than humored. “I can’t believe that just happened.”

“What? That your father almost caught me with his son in the kitchen making croissants or the fact that he now things you have some sort of cat fetish?” Ladybug said, chuckling.

“Thank goodness I wasn’t wearing the bell.”

That sent them both in a fit of giggles.

Ladybug didn’t realize she was tilting to one side until her head came to rest against something solid. She turned, finding herself almost cheek to cheek with Adrien, his blond hair tickling her forehead. Their eyes met, and all she could see was that emerald green. Long, light eyelashes started to close, and she realized that he was coming closer. At least, one small part of his face was coming closer.

Standing up quickly, she hit her head against the over-hanging lip of the counter. She cried out and held onto the bump forming from her skull.

“Are you okay?” Adrien asked, still on the floor.

“Yeah, it’s nothing,” she replied, trying not to cry.

Why did I just do that? she asked herself, nursing her aching head. Adrien just tried to kiss me. His lips would have been on mine. Haven’t I been dreaming of that moment for months?! Why did I pull away? She regretted it, but it had been a knee-jerk reaction, something her body decided to do without thinking things through. It happened too fast, too suddenly. It surprised her.

I just hope that Adrien doesn’t get the wrong idea.

“Well, breakfast is ruined,” Adrien said, acting as if the whole “not kissing” incident didn’t happen. He stood up and glared down at the burnt lumps of dough. “I’m sorry, M’lady. You’ll have to wait a little while longer. I’ll order something for us. I know the perfect place.”

Maybe it’s for the best, Ladybug thought as she gazed at the ruined croissants. First attempts leave the appetite wanting less.

“You’ll love this bakery. They make the best of everything in Paris,” Adrien said, holding his phone to his ear. “In fact, it’s owned by the parents of one of my classmates.”

That perked Ladybug up. At least her mom and dad would be getting a little more business from her date. “And while we wait, you can sample my own culinary skills,” she said, presenting the platter of fruit. And to make him feel better about the burnt pastries, she added, “They are berry good.”

Adrien looked surprised at what just came out of her mouth, then he smiled. “M’lady, your words have captured my heart.” 


End file.
